001Welcome everyone to the Taylor School District regularly scheduled board meeting of December 20th, 2023 where our mission statement is to educate, engage, and empower those we serve. And our vision statement is that we will be the innovative destination district where all succeed. This meeting is called to order at 6:06 p.m. Mr. Heath >> here. >> Mr. Meyers >> here. >> Mr. Thomas >> here. Mrs. Thomas >> here. Miss >> here. >> Mr. Wright is here. Miss BL >> here. >> Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible. First up on our meeting is our best part of the meeting, which is our good news. Tonight, we have a few items of
002good news to share with you all. As well as following that, we have a board president update to honor individuals and the work that they've done for the school district uh over the past summer and year to make this building uh the new board of education. Um so first up we have our Meyers Elementary gifts, Miss Jarvis. Hi, good evening everyone. Um, so rarely do you get a project that I've seen that touches every single department in in school and this uh milky cookies with Santa was definitely that. every single department. Um, a few of our board members, our directors, um, maintenance, everybody came together to make it a fabulous day for the kids at Meyers and it was just by happen stance that it kind of came together and it snowballed into a wonderful
003event. So, we had um gotten a donation from PetSmart from their foundation. Usually I try to give to bigger um operations like Children's Hospital and Make a Wish and um the Family Resource Center for Taylor School District was the recipient this year. And so, um, we kind of got rolling with that and got some wonderful donations from so many of our community partners and just our in district people. And we had a wrapping day, which took forever. And um, we wrapped over 700 individual gifts. And then we we also stuffed um, 350 backpacks for the kids. And then we went over that day and Santa came and we gave gifts to everyone and they were delivered. And then um to top it all off, we had therapy dogs that went to the classrooms that weren't
004down in the event um during that time or for maybe some classes that it would be overwhelming in that environment. So we took the gifts to them and the and the therapy dogs kind of went around and Santa went and saw them as well. And then to top it off, a few of us rode the bus on the way home and um that was a wonderful actual wonderful experience. Um the kids were singing Christmas songs with us and um the staff at Myyers was so accommodating and the kids were so kind and appreciative. So um I'm just really grateful that it was something that came together so nicely and I couldn't say enough good things about it. >> Thank you. Next on our good news is the Michigan esports and I believe we have coach
005not >> um I want to first off uh say thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight. Um my name is Rick Posak. I'm the coach for our esports um team. There we go. Um, so for for everybody who doesn't know what esports is, esports is competitive video gaming. Um, I know it's a little different, a little strange. Um, but it's real. Um, it's a big thing. Um, we, uh, let's see here. Against we play against other high schools within the state of Michigan. Um, all over the state. We actually had to become our own region because esports in Michigan is growing so rapidly. Um we used to be part of the eastern seabboard the first time we did it. We actually played against kids all all and down the eastern seabboard. But
006Michigan's growing so they made us our own our own region. Um but before I really get into anything, I want to give a special thank you to um Justin Moore and Katherine Hilton. Um they help me coach take time out of their busy schedules. Um, Miss Hilton's not here today. I don't think Justin's here. Um, also Amy Murphy and, uh, Jennifer uh, Fer for helping me set up the esports labs. We spend the summertime over at the Career Center North building uh, preparing two rooms, wiring, painting, um, all that stuff. Little bit of the painting. um we were doing um there's our team or some of the team. Um I also want to give a shout out to John Ross and Matthew Redu for uh being ambassadors for the program. They were really kind of
007the you know my voice and your guys' ears really um to help it. So I started esports for the district to give the students an outlet to further their education is the main thing. Um, competitive video gaming is big in business and it continues to grow each year. Annually, the gaming industry is worth $90 billion dollar worldwide. Uh, with over $15 million given out in student scholarships across the country. So, kids nowadays can earn a scholarship for playing video games. Um, you see, not every child is born with the ability to play or compete in sports. Collegiate video games gives those students the opportunity to continue their education doing something they enjoy. Colleges all over the country and the world uh now recruit for esports. So, it only made sense to start this program, try
008to get ahead of where it's going and hopefully we can pioneer um the industry at a high school level instead of trying to play catch-up. We'll be out in the forefront of it. Um the way esports works is the high school students play through a platform called play versus. Um with that platform the high school students um high school teams the students can connect with one one another and set up matches compete in their favorite game titles. Match records are kept. Their wins, losses, even rivalries are formed. Uh there are two seasons for everyone school year. We have a fall and a spring season. Um, in the fall we play from September to December and that season's championships are played at Oakland University up in Sterling Heights. Um, and then in the spring uh, championship
009is played in Western univers uh, Western Michigan University in uh, Kelly. Um, this past fall season, we had every single team we field made the playoffs. Okay, so for the past for the this past season, we had two students who represented our district. Um Aaron Mayfield is a junior from the high school, went undefeated in NFL Madden 24. Um he went to the state championships on December 7th. Um unfortunately, despite his best efforts, he lost. He placed second in the state of Michigan, but is ranked currently number one in the state of Michigan for the game. And if you like that, you're going to love this because he's actually ranked number seven in the country according to USA Today High School Sports. >> That's Oh, some more pictures of our lab we set up. Um,
010we also have a student um named Michael G who also represented Taylor School District well this season. Michael's a senior for the high school and plays in the Rocket League team. He is also one of our team's captains and was invit invited to uh compete in the Shoutcasters Showdown at Fair State in Northern Michigan this year. He likes to do streaming and when he does the streaming he does playbyplay cause is the best way I can say it. Um there he competed with other students in play-by-play commentary for streaming esports matches. He placed first in the competition. uh and was invited to do play-by-play calling at the state championship this past season at Oakland University. Uh during the event, he was able to make connections with numerous college esport directors, coaches, and staffs. Uh Michael
011is also the subject of a news article produced by Fox 2 Detroit. Um they covered a whole section on him uh with his accomplishments and shout casting and everything he does within the esports community. Um, as you can see, in the two and a half short years that we've run this program, um, we have been successfully uplifting and representing the Taylor School District. We hope you can we hope to continue the support and help us find the means of funding as we're not part of athletics. So therefore, we have to come up with all the funding ourselves. Um, we rely on funding and grants to the district. Um, we all we continue to strive to be the best to represent the Taylor School District with pride. The goal, of course, is to make and keep
012the Taylor School District on top of the competition. I want to say thank you for your time, for giving me to speak tonight. Um, it's something I hold very dear. Again, I started it for the main objective to giving these kids another way to continue their education. That's that's the main main thing here. Um, but if you guys have any questions, comments, concerns, don't hesitate to ask. I got a lot more information than that, just this was dumbed down, I guess you could say. Um, so again, I want to say thank you for everybody for their help and thank everybody here for for helping us make this possible. >> Thank you for everything you do. So, the last piece of good news tonight in keeping in line with the sports, we have the honor of
013honoring the Kenyan girls bitty ball basketball team who's here with us tonight and they won the district championship at the Bitty Ball tournament. So, Kenya Elementary uh girls bitty ball team are now the Taylor School District's girls bitty ball champions. And so, we wanted to bring them here tonight. um and honor each of them. Uh their coach, Greg Long, is here. Um I'm going to go through the list um of the players that are being honored tonight. Um I'll give Mr. Long a few uh moments to say say a few words and then once I call your name, if you could see Miss Shoefelt down here, we have a special gift for each of you. I guess I'd like to start off by u congratulating the Kenyan girls basketball team on winning the championship. Oh,
014it's not my phone. Um um I'm proud to call CHAMPION to spend a minute or so talking about their accomplishments. But before I do that, I'm going to give a little background information on the two teams that were in the championship game. Taylor Parks, they were an amazing team. They went the whole regular season undefeated. Kenyan, they only lost one game during the regular season, and that was to Taylor Parks. And they spent every minute of practice after that loss preparing for a rematch against Taylor Parks. and um they stepped up to the occasion and um beat Taylor Parks 12-9. And I must add also Taylor Parks usually averaged around 30 points a game and they held them to nine points. Um really really to see their growth from the team that lost 20 to
015six to the team that won the championship. Um I mean I can't express how proud me and Mrs. Brady are of them and not just us, it's also the whole Kenyon family. Everyone's proud of them. Um, I'd like to um also give a shout out to our student assistant coach, Ty Bell. He's a sixth grader at West. Um, he helped out at practice wherever we needed him. Even in the last week of practice, he even played the role of a Taylor Parks girl during our scrimmage. So, congratulations Um, also want to give a a shout out to um, Coach Simons, Coach Putnham, and Coach Ford at the high school for taking the time to organize the league and volunteering their time every week for the games. I mean, without them, this couldn't have never happened.
016And really, Taylor's lucky to have this league because most elementary school, most districts don't offer any elementary sports. So, we're lucky to have it here in Taylor. So really happy about that. And they're ready to defend their title next year. >> So as I call your name, if you could step up here, Miss Shufelt is over here. And then if you could remain standing facing your parents, I know they're going to want photos of you up here. So, just face your parents and uh make sure you see Miss Shoe Felt down at the end. And I'm sorry, too, if I mispronounce names. Please correct me. All right. I have Arya Spencer, Michaela Bray, Um, Micaia Brave. >> Um, Maddie M. Is it Spins? Then we have Molina. >> And then we have Kaitlyn Sterling. Uh,
017Nina Knight. >> Is it Messiah? >> Okay. Abby Bell. Maya. All right. That McKenzie Morauricei, >> Sophia Sadler, >> Kenzie Fishiser, Is it Ken? Is it Kinsley? Kinsley. W Janiah Edwards. >> And lastly, but not least, we have Jessa Hubbert. I just want to say congratulations and amazing work this season. We're looking forward to seeing what you all produce next year. All right. And parents, I know you want photos, so Can we give him a round of applause one more time? Thank you all. >> So, next we have uh on the agenda the board president update. One of the things that I wanted to take the time to do and the board did and the cabinet was recognize the amazing work that our maintenance staff support staff did over the past summer and year to
018transform this building into the board of education office. Tonight we are here and we are honoring each one of them that put the amazing work and effort into making this building look beautiful. I can tell you now, it did not look like this probably a year ago, but they put every ounce of energy into making sure that this building was beautiful and it just shows how amazing the staff we have here are and the amount of dedication and the work that they can produce. And so tonight, we just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for making this place a new home for us. Thank you for making this a new place in the home for the community to come here to congregate to honor our students. It's a beautiful space to be able to
019do this and it's also a great place for our families to come when they first step into the Taylor School District and see because it's the hard work that each of you put into this building. So tonight, we wanted to thank you. We have little gifts, gift bags for you all. And so as I call your name, if you could come up and we're gonna also ask you to stay up here if you want to. That way we can get a photo of you at the very end just so that we can put that out there to the rest of the community the amazing work that you did today or throughout this time to make this be building beautiful. So the first person we have is Denise Armstrong. We have, okay, if I mispronounce the
020names too, just please correct me. I swear. Diane Atkari, I know this person because I saw him every single day. I feel like this week. Eric Bart, is it Bardum? All right, we have Tamara. Is it Beard? >> Beard. We have Kelly Beckham. We have Sean Burggley, Abby, is it Borabina? Borbina not here. All right, we have Mike Carrer. Is it >> Carte? All right. We have Andrea Casease. Joe Contras Ken Dantini. All right. Oh, did I say Ken or Dan? Oh, I said Ken. Okay. I was called you Dan. We have Justin Don't be shy, too. We can start making a line over here. We have Brett Davis, Ray Fisk, Jennifer, I don't know if this guy should come up here or not, but he's standing in the back. He's He's hiding over there.
021Jack Bard. We have Anna Gledge Hannah David Heatherly. We have Kim Crustin Blake, Lisa Leblanc, Gina Mccclure, Justin Moore, Amy Murphy. This was the guy that was truly hiding in the back. Patrick Neslick. Then we have Rick. Is it Navu? Um, then we have Kathy O'Donnell. This individual that I'm calling next, I remember her from when I was in elementary at Blair Moody. She took care of that building like crazy. And that is >> I know we're at Johnson now. Then we have Richard. Okay, I know you just told me, but I >> All right, we have the guy behind the screen, Matthew Redu. We have the head guy behind the screen, John Ross. We have Mike Savoy Seavoy. Ryan Schmidt. Did I get that right? Aaron Spencer, Sam Traisco, >> Mike Usher, Phil Waldo.
022Where's Waldo? Should we know where Waldo is? >> Mark Westfall. Last but not least, Reagan Worthy. Jeremy. All right. And then Jeremy Morris. And then is there anyone else call? All right. I just wanted to say thank you all again. Seriously, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for your dedication, the hard work that each of you put in and honestly, it's going to be a testament of time because this building will forever be our board of education because of the work you all did. So, thank you. Thank you for creating a legacy here in the Taylor School District. All good. So, at this point, if we had any parents or any community members, we want to open the floor up for anybody that would like to leave. They're more than welcome to. I
023know it's a school night. Um, but for those that want to stay during the meeting, you're more than welcome to stay as well. All right, moving on to item number five, the revisions/approval of the agenda. Miss Block, >> are there any revisions of the agenda? >> Hearing none, I will ask for a motion to approve the agenda. >> Motion by Mr. Myers. Is there a second? >> Second by Mr. Heath. >> Mr. Meyers. >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Shufeld. >> Yes. >> Mr. Wright? >> Yes. >> Miss Blacky? Yes. Mr. Heath? >> Yes. >> Motion carries 70. >> Moving on to item number six of our agenda, our scheduled reports. Tonight we have the Michigan Department of Education, Michelle Bowererman. >> All right. And she is
024an instructional consultant to talk to us. >> I am. And I know how to clear a room. Look at that. Um, thank you all so much for having me with you here this evening. Um, I'm not just crashing a party. I was actually asked to come here. I only go where I'm asked. I know better. Um, I was able to work with your counselors and some of your administration, Dr. Lewis back in the very end of August and kind of did a longer version of what I'm going to do with you tonight. Sorry, I just wanted to make sure. Um, so we're going to do a very shortened version of what I did with your staff. And really um my position at the department even though we have kind of long obnoxious titles um in
025a in a snippet my position is really to support all of our 800 plus districts with implementing the graduation requirements. Right? And so a lot of you might be thinking, well those aren't new. They've been in place for a long time. And they have. But there are a lot of misconceptions and misunderstandings and misnomers and all sorts of things kind of going around and they have been going around. It's nothing new since this law was passed back in ' 06. So what they asked me to do today was just to give plant some seeds maybe let you know some of those flexibility options that are in that are built into that legislation that go underutilized and kind of unused across the state. just for you as leadership in in a district to say, are there
026places where we may be able to make some slight changes or modifications to do better by our students to follow the graduation requirements a little closer possibly. And I bet you'll hear something that surprises you by what I'm going to share about our graduation requirements. So, what I did share that you'll get, I don't think you have it yet, but I did share with you just a copy of this short presentation and then also a couple other documents that you have for your reference. You can go ahead and go to the next slide if you will. So, I'm going to blow up a section of this one pager in just a second, but you also are getting an electronic or you'll have a printed copy in your office by tomorrow, I'm told. So, basically what
027this one pager is is it's just a a very succinct cheat sheet version of our graduation requirements in Michigan. You know, those 18 credits we all know and love or maybe don't love so much. But either way, we're all stuck with the same 18 credits. So, these 18 credits and for just for the next five minutes, I'm hoping that you can turn off that little part of your brain that's going to say, "Well, that's the way we've always done it, or that's how I always thought they were." turn that off just for a second and just be open to listening how the graduation requirements were intended to be taken up by our districts and implemented for our students. So, I'm going to I'm going to go to the next slide, but then I'm going to
028go back to that one in just a second. So, all of the graduation requirements that we have in Michigan are not bound that me or is that We love technology. >> Take back his gift bag. >> So there's there's a couple main ideas for our graduation requirements in Michigan. Um, two of them as a matter of fact. The first premise that these graduation requirements were built on was that they were meant to be void of a time constraint. So when you read read the graduation requirements on this document or any other one, you will never find the word years because years are actually not a part of our graduation requirements. They're all meant to be based on our content standards and the learning that time piece while relevant to other parts of our system is
029not relevant to the requirement. So I'm going to give you one example just to cement that idea. So English English is on the top. The requirement for English is four credits not four years. A student could earn those four credits in four days or four months or six years. It's all dependent on what's right under that where it says proficiency in the content standards. So, as you probably know, we've adopted the common core for English and math. There's a list of high school ELA common, you know, common core standards. Those are the graduation requirements. The other thing that you won't find listed there are names of courses. So it doesn't say ELA 9, ELA 10, ELA 11, ELA 12 because those are not required. The requirement is those high school ELA standards that we've adopted
030as a state. And once a student learns those standards, that's when they're supposed to earn those four credits. That gives a district autonomy, flexibility. I always use the analogy that at that point we throw the football to all of you and you all have to decide how are we going to take those standards and split them up into courses and figure out when students have learned them to be able to grant that credit. Right? So let me do one more example just to cement the idea one a little bit further. Go ahead and go to the next slide. So right here what you see on the screen is three math standards. These are three standards from our adopted math content standards aka the common core. So these are three different standards. There's one on polomials,
031there's one on then the other two are on zeros and factors of polomials, right? And I know that doesn't mean a lot to non-math people. I don't know that it means a lot to me, but the requirement by law said that in Michigan students have to learn those three things along with a whole bunch of other math stuff in order to earn those four credits. Here's my analogy again. At that point, we have to throw the football to you because we don't have a preference if they learn those in a class called algebra, a class called algebra 2, a class called math functions, or a class called name the class. It doesn't matter where they learn those standards or it doesn't matter how long it takes, but in order to earn those credits, they're supposed
032to learn that math content. And that's a little different than how most people perceive our requirements, right? They perceive our requirements to be, well, the student has to sit in algebra 1 and then they have to sit in algebra 2 and they have to sit in geometry. And while that could be the case where you are in Taylor, that may be how you've split up the standards. They don't necessarily have to be split up that way or in those increments. So some schools could have those traditional courses, but you could also take that content, cover it in different places and award the same credit. So when I was listening to the gentleman speak about esports, my mind was going, "Holy moly, all the standards those kids are learning in esports." So if they learn some
033of this math or some science or some ELA in esports, they can absolutely earn credit from that. Doesn't matter that it's not a class called algebra or ELA9. Doesn't matter if it's during the school day. The law says they have to learn the content. Wherever they learn it and however long it takes is up to that individual district to make that decision. So, I'm going to show you just one more example with science. In science in Michigan, the requirement isn't biology, chemistry, physics, earth science, or three years of science. The requirement in Michigan is what's in the gray square. It says science standards 71. 71 is the number of science standards that we have in Michigan. There are 71 bits of information that we require students learn in order to earn those three credits. That's
034where our authority ends as a department of ed and as a lawmaker. That's where we toss the football to you all and you all get to decide how are we going to take those 71 standards and make them relevant and engaging and awesome for students. How are we going to assess that they've learned them and how are we going to grant those three credits? So, um, one that's a very traditional pathway. Biology, chemistry, physics, each of them covers some many districts do it that way, but you don't have to do it that way. One more slide. Some districts do it this way. They split all those 71 standards into a science A and a science B. Each of them covers half. Each of them would be worth a credit and a half. Do you have
035to make them longer? No. Could you? Yes. That's always up to you as a district, right? So, the point being sometimes we have to take a step back and reflect what the actual requirement is because it's not a mystery. I don't love standardized testing and those those state assessments any more than anyone. But guess what? Guess what they're assessed on in science in 11th grade? The 71 standards, right? So, it all goes together. And it's that word proficiency that we really want to make sure we're hitting on when it comes to students. Are they learning the content? And can they demonstrate it? Go ahead and go forward. Um, two more if you would. So this is where I think that the role of your leadership and your school board comes in to action because when
036we think about so the law basically states students have to become proficient that's a loaded word already proficient because what does proficient mean? Does it mean they got a D minus? I don't like that definition. Does it mean they got an A? Does it mean they passed the final? Does it mean they showed up every day and brought a pencil? You get to decide what proficiency means. But according to that MMC law, it means they learned it. They have demonstrated that they learned it. And that's what credit is based on. So one thing that districts have to kind of wrap their minds around is what are the policies and practices that we have in a district that outline proficiency, right? What does that mean? And when is a student truly proficient? and only you can
037decide that as a district. But the idea of these requirements is that we care less about time and about course name and that we really shift more to the idea of here's what we want students to learn. Here's the proof that they have learned it. Right? So that's what that's the premise behind that whole bundle of 18 credits. It's not about the time. It's not about the course name. It's about those standards and making sure that we have mastery that students have mastery of those before they they leave us. Go ahead and go um forward a couple more. One more. So you can do that one so that all the content shows. So, one of the areas of f another area of flexibility is that one of the foundational pieces of this law was that
038those MMC18 credits can be met in a million different ways, not just courses or not just traditional courses. So, one way that a student could earn a math credit is in a class called algebra. Absolutely. But they could also earn a math credit in a class that covers science and math together. We love that. If you do that, I will come back and visit. we will highlight you for the rest of the states because we love integration. That's how content is supposed to work, right? So many classes right now have a class called US history that also gives an ELA credit. We love that. That's how ELA is supposed to be provided and instructed about. Um, if they learn that content in CTE courses, the credit is equivalent. We don't care if they learn the
039science in physics or the CTE program down the road. Doesn't matter. as long as they learn it, then they earn that credit. Outside of school activities, like I mentioned with the esports or even the basketball, if they're doing something like that outside of school that gets them to mastery, they can absolutely earn credit. It doesn't have to be in a classroom. So, you have opportunities to award credits for other things. Testing out is another way that the law supports students earning credit without having to take a class. my bumper sticker when I can make it is going to say if you if you learn it, you earn it because that's the premise behind the whole idea of the MMC is that you can't earn credit unless you have that learning or that mastery. So the
040the last thing I want to mention is that aside from the requirements, there's a lot of inroads in this law to wave things, right? So we we recognize and this law recognizes that every student doesn't need the same classes to become career and college ready. I think I probably stand with a united front saying there are some students who don't necessarily need algebra 2 to be career and college ready. Right? Well, there are places in this law for you to be able to wave certain requirements for students and still have them earn a diploma as long as we do it with integrity and we keep that students postchool goals intact and that that's what we're working towards. So, you have a couple options for science in world language where you can weigh a credit not
041going to be on their transcript. They're not going to earn it and you can do that if they're in a CTE program. So, if you have a student that's going to be in the culinary program, two-year program, you can wave some MMC credits that they're not going to need to take because those things don't align with their post school goal. So, science is one and world language is one. And those do not, if you've ever heard that term, personal curriculum. That's also in my wheelhouse. We're not going to get into it too much today, but these two waiverss, you don't need a personal curriculum. Every other waiver, you would need a personal curriculum. So, um, go ahead and go to two more. That's the That's the high school website that I just wanted to show
042you. Everything I'm saying today and referencing, you can find on that website. I think if you hit it three more times, you're going to pop up with some arrows. So, if you really want to do some some great light reading over Christmas break, I would suggest checking out the FAQ. It's going to tell you that algebra 2 isn't a requirement in Michigan. Never has been, right? It's not about the course, it's about the content. So, if you want to check out that FAQ, there's a lot of information there. All of our standards are linked in that bottom section. You can hit it uh I think one more time. Um I'm not going to go into to the personal curriculum waiver today because I think that's kind of a bigger, more in-depth conversation, but I just
043wanted to reiterate that the Michigan Merit curriculum is not intended to be one-sizefits-all. It was never intended so that every student took the same courses for four years. I would argue that if all of your students are taking the same courses for four years, we're doing it wrong. And that was never the intent of the Michigan merit curriculum. It was intended to be able to say, you student a want to be a welder. What should I help you do during those four years to prepare you to become a welder? And if that doesn't involve certain classes, and it should involve certain experiences, you can do that within the law. It's there to allow you that flexibility to make those changes and to wave things and to make it so that a student's four years is
044engaging and relevant and meaningful for them and only them. Um, so I just wanted to plant some seeds about that MMC conversation as I'm working with your district. They said, "Hey, our our board might be making policies that affect this. They might not understand when we ask them to count a student's work outside of school as a credit because they might think that's not allowed. It is allowed. We love that, right? You can absolutely give credit for those kinds of things. You just have to decide to do that as a district and that is always your choice. It is your diploma, not mine or not ours, not the departments. It is your diploma. So, you get to decide what it means and when the student earns it. You can go ahead and go. So when
045you when you get this there there's some other stuff in here. You can go to the very last one. So there's some other stuff in here and if you have further questions or thoughts you can certainly reach out to me. Um the last one I think has yeah my contact information. You can certainly reach out to me and if you want to have a deeper dive into more of that personal curriculum stuff just reach out. We can do a 20-minute phone call or whatever makes sense and I can help you um through that as well. So that's all I got. >> Thank you. >> Yes. You're welcome. >> Thank you. You can give a round of applause. Moving on to item number seven in our agenda, we have our discussion items. First on our discussion,
046we have outofstate field trip request, Cedar Point. Uh, Miss Brad, >> I think it's Victoria. Are you on Zoom? >> If you could raise your hand on the Zoom so that way our moderator can >> Hi everyone, how are you >> doing? Good. Happy to hear it. I'm Victoria Franjidakis. Um I know my video is not on, but hopefully you guys can all hear me. Uh I'm the choir director over at West Middle School. Um me and my kind of co-teer, my mentor teacher, Joanne Farmer, who's the band director over at West, are taking our kids hopefully on a field trip to Cedar Point. We do this every year. Um it's a great motivating tool for the kids. It's a great um social opportunity for the students. They work all year to be able to
047go to this field trip. So, tonight I'm just here to uh ask your approval for going out of state to Sanduski to um our Cedar Point annual field trip. Do you have any questions for me? >> Any discussion? >> Thank you. Moving on to item number two, we have the overnight field trip request Imagination Station and we have Miss Bell who's on Zoom. If you could raise your hand so that we can recognize that Hi everybody, it's Lori Bell. I am just requesting uh permission to take my kids, fifth graders, to Imagination Station in Toledo, Ohio. Um, I know he said overnight, Kyle. It's just a day trip. >> Is there any discussion? >> Thank you, Miss B. >> Thank you. >> Moving on to item number three. We have our overnight conference request, the
048Michigan Music Conference. Miss Gray, >> I'm wondering if Miss Fragette >> Okay, perfect. >> Hello. >> We have Brian. Hi, I'm Brian Misor. I'm the band director at the high school. Um, I would be one of the teachers going on this. Uh, so this is to the Michigan Music Conference in January. Um, we were able to go last year and it was myself and a couple other teachers that were able to go, music teachers in the district. Um, it was a great way for us to kind of get to talk with each other, meet with each other. Um, the Michigan Music Conference is for professional development for teachers all across Michigan for band, choir, uh, elementary. So, uh, it's a really great networking opportunity for us. There's a lot of performances from local schools. Um,
049the Dundee High School band is going to be there this year. It's a huge honor to play, uh, to take your group to the Michigan Music Conference, so we get to go see them. Uh, it's going to be a great time. So, it's January 25th through the 27th, and we're really, really grateful that the district is able to send us again. So, if there's any questions, I'd be happy to answer. >> Any discussion? Thank you. >> Thank you. I want to say this is beautiful, too. So, thank you to the maintenance staff that made this happen. This is great. So, thank you. >> Moving on to item number four, we have the taxa, TPA, TFT, and 26M TSSAUs. So in uh recent days we have been hearing uh quite a bit from various principles, various
050directors, uh various leadership throughout the district that they do have concerns that we are going to see quite a influx in retirements uh coming forward. And basically, as we're planning into this time of year where we're going to have to build master schedules for buildings, we're going to have to plan that course or the the schedules of how that's going to look from building to building. It behooves us to have the data of how many teachers, how many uh employees, how many support staff, how many principles are considering retiring at this point. In the contracts for tax at TPA and TFT, they currently have a clause in there that states that if you notify the district by March 15 that you are going to retire at the end of the year that those employees will
051get a $1,000 bonus. Uh we felt with the amount of retirements that we could potentially be facing, waiting till March 15th was waiting too long to get that information. So, we propose to our uh unions that if we move that up to February 2nd, we would give them $2,000 and this would be for tax at TPA and TFT uh to notify us of that uh that they are considering that movement. Uh in 26M's contract, there is no such language for notifying the district in advance that there's going to be retirement. We also felt that this was something that uh should be applied to all of our staff because this is something where we have to plan for for every part of the school district. So, we did reach out. We did offer to them that
052there would be a $750 uh bonus if 26M members uh do notify us that they are going to retire by the end of the school year and that would be paid upon when that retirement comes for tax at TFT at the TPA. The language for how that's going to be paid out is already in their contracts. Um but with 26M again we had to get creative and put it there and we did put it that this would be a offline check that they would receive upon retirement. Is there any discussion? Moving on to item number five new hire special education director. Mr. Uh it is my pleasure to announce that we are uh bringing to the board tonight to uh the proposal to hire Erica Smith as our uh new special ed director. Erica has
053been with the school district as a special education teacher for over 25 years. Um I've personally known her go to going back when I was a long-term substitute at school. So what she brings on board that I can personally attest to is she's very good at building relationships with students and staff. She is also somebody who does not ever shy away from the challenge. That is what what drives her at her core. And I think that she is going to be a very good fit for what we have going forward and what our district is going to need uh with our special education needs. >> Is there any discussion? Just want to make it clear. Uh the funding for the position comes from special. >> Yes, that is separate from the district. >> Moving on
054to item number six, new hire dean of students. Miss Grant. >> Hello. Um, I'd like to present to the board um that we would like to put forth um Ryan Bby to be the um dean of students at West Middle School. He's currently a sixth grade English language arts teacher at West. Um and so this is a building title one uh funded position. Um so we're putting that for the floor tonight. >> And what you said this was >> Yes. And that was because the individual was in position. >> Correct. And this position was vacant. >> So it's just replacing. >> Correct. >> Any other discussion? >> Moving on to new hire student support provider position is a brand new one um for Meyers Elementary. This is paid out of the RAG grant, the regional
055assistant grant because Meyers is one of our PA schools. Um we're in a partnership agreement with um the department of ed and RHSA. Um they give us additional money to spend on our schools that need additional assistance. The student support provider position um will service kindergarten through 2 grade. Um we are happy to recommend Miguel Vargas for this position. He's currently the professional development sub in Meyers. Um, so he's already a part of the Meyers community. Um, they know and love him there. This would be just transferring him to a different role in that same building. >> And you said this was the funding we get from him to support our schools. >> Correct. The RAG grant, the regional assistance grant. >> No, when this grant ends, it's the position written when the grant ends
056that that position. >> That is correct. It would end. The position would end. >> So I said uh once >> once the position uh ends will it because it's grant funded will that position then no longer exist in the district and this brand. >> That is correct. >> I rest my case. >> I will move this closer. Is that better? All right. Next we have um number eight, the Johnson Moody parking lot. Mr. Wager. >> Oh, Mr. Pence. Yes. >> Good evening. Gary K with Plan Real Point here to present the award recommendation for the Taylor School District Civil Engineering Services uh RFP. Uh back in October, we were directed to reach out to firms to get a proposal from them in order to design and bid out and provide construction documents for the parking
057lot repairs at Johnson Elementary and um Blair Mooney. Uh we received both proposals from two firms. You'll see a bit breakdown on the following page from Swan Decker and EA Group. Uh both firms have a history of providing services that uh meet the criteria of the proposal in the RFP. Um the award recommendation that we are presenting tonight would be going to PA group uh for an amount of $36,700 and a project contingency amount of $20,000 for any unforeseen scope uh increases or any unforeseen conditions. Um total award recommendation for this project is $56,700. Again, any unused contingency amount will be returned to the board at a later date. I would present those savings. Um, you can see again the bid breakdown of the following page between the two firms. Very close proposals. There's a
058difference of $1,300 between the two and uh both firms including both hourly rates experiencing similar size projects and they expect the project to be completed um within the required number of days in the proposal. The anticipated schedule for this project is actually they're going to be starting the surveying today. So, they're out there already getting a head start. Um, we'll start the design and have bid documents in January so that we can bid it out, pres bring it to the board for recommendation in February, and then start construction in that parking lot in uh the summer. So, that's ready for school next year. >> So, the project is expected to be done before the start of school next year. >> Correct. following pages you'll see their proposal and laying out all the services that they'll
059provide whether it's the survey um construction documents design permitting assistance etc. Any questions regarding this award recommendation? >> Thank you. >> What kind of things would would happen that they'd have to use the $20,000? Um, so one example is originally the scope you can see on page two of the proposal was just to do a portion of the Blair Moody parking lot. Um, we've actually increased that or the district's increased that scope to include the whole parking lot so that we're not just redoing part of it. It'll be all redone at the same time so that you're not doing part of it now and then having to come back a few years later. We actually have received proposals since then for the amount of $2,800. So that would cover uh that would be included in
060that $20,000. Any other discussion? >> Thank you. >> Moving on to item number nine, we have our first reading of policy updates and revisions. We have policy 1540, the administrative staff reduction recalls. We have policy 2370.01 online blended learning program. We have policy 72 yes policy 7217 which is weapons. Policy 8305 information security. And lastly, we have policy 8531, free and reduced price meals discussion. Moving on to item number 10, the Taylor School District Utilization Plan. I believe we have a presentation that will be on the screens on the side of the room. Feel free to move if you can't see. Matt, are we able to get the sound? Once again, technical difficulties. All right, we can go. We can talk. So, the presentation um that you're about to see um is something that we
061started to roll out and inform our staffs about earlier today. A while back before I was in as superintendent. Uh we did have a utilization study done to kind of check out what the infrastructure needs were going to be for our buildings going forward into the future. And uh as part of that process, they also gave us figures on how well we were utilizing the buildings we currently have in the school district. So when we when that process and we got that report back, we started to kind of have an idea of what the needs were going to be going uh forward. Uh unfortunately what we also discovered as we were going through this process and we're getting this report and information back um we did find some concerning items that were in our five-year
062budget projection and that's something we are going to kind of talk through in a few moments. Um but uh things that we notice that they need to be addressed so that we don't have uh issues going forward and that essentially by the end when we finish this school year and we go into the next school year we are going to be operating in a operating deficit. And in the first year we would be in an operating deficit of around $4.8 million. And then by the end of year five, we would be close to a $6 million operating deficit. Uh obviously that is not a place that we want to be as a school district. That is just fiscally irresponsible to continue down that path and have that money coming out of the school district. Uh
063we are thankful that um currently we have a very healthy fund balance. We have a fund balance that is at 50% uh currently, but as you'll see ear when we pull up the slides here in a little bit, you're going to see that that fund balance is going to start dropping due to that operating deficit. And if we don't correct that, we're going to eat up what's uh in our fund balance. So, I can pick it up from here. As Mike was talking about how we got here today, the key issue with where we came from is regarding our SR3 dollars. What we discovered was that our previous administration, what they did was they allocated all $28 million of the SR3 funds to salaries and benefits. When the state came out with eight with the
064SR3 funds, it was recommended that it not be used for salaries and benefits. That was the state's recommendation and advice >> or or if you did you did it in a way that it would not affect your legacy costs and not affect something that you have to go forward. Like several school districts they would give to recognize how hard their employees worked during those difficult times of virtual instruction and school shutdown. They would give them a say a 3% bonus. uh that was a one-time off-scheduled payment and therefore it wasn't something that would roll over as a you know constantly into salaries and benefits. >> So as we started to uncover a lot of these findings in the district's finances, one of the key things that we wanted to do to make sure that the
065numbers were accurate was ensure that our auditors review the numbers and the projections that our district was headed in. our auditors did review and they confirmed that the numbers that we are showing you which you'll see on the screen momentarily. Um if we can go to that slide that is what the auditors confirmed our district to be headed towards. So you can see that in the 20 2021 2022 uh 23 school year our fund balance was positive. In the current school year, we're expected to end with a fund balance of 50.7%. At the end of the ESSER dollars, which again expire in September of 2024, those salaries and benefits that the DIS the last administration put in the ESR3 funds have to be absorbed by our general fund. This in lie puts us in operating
066deficit as you can see happen. So you can see that our um overall uh the overall my face is in the way. Yes. The overall total expenditures increased from 60,629,352 to 75,483968 for the next school year. that is that SSR3 funds moving into our general fund. Now on the uh point of how we didn't discover that that is because on the last day of our previous CFO that is when the board was presented with these numbers. These projections were not being shared with the board of education leading up until that last day of our previous CFO. From that moment on, the board had to work with our new administration as Mike started in September. And this is when the discovery occurred was in September um to work towards creating a plan because our district was
067on a path of deficit um in the next following school year of operating deficit. And we're very thankful too that uh Edwah Hill our new CFO as she's come on board she has discovered and noticed that with those SR3 funds that about 13.8 million of it is what has actually gone out currently. So we are able to rectify and not make this where a whole 28 million would affect that general fund. So we are in the process of reconciling that uh application for SR3 and making sure that it is accurate to what we report to the state and uh going forward. So if we go to the next slide. So, as a result of this, the board had to look at how is our district going to be covering the deficit that we are going
068to be facing in the next school year, the operating deficit. Our fund balance will still sustain the operating deficit, but not for long. We only have a certain amount of time. So, as you can see in this slide, this was done um as a utilization study. The board hired Plant Moran Cresa to conduct a district-wide utilization study. This utilization study came back with numbers. Again, the numbers were a little inflated just because when they walked through our buildings, they just took the number of classrooms and what they did was multiply it by the contractual amount in the teachers contracts. We know that that's not realistic. So over the past few weeks and months, uh, I walked through these buildings and talked with building administrators to review the numbers of our buildings to make sure that
069these were hap these numbers are accurate and that we adjust to not have these inflated rates. These buildings we know are unique and what we saw was that you can't fit 35 kids in every single classroom across the district. sometimes there's not just the physical space for that. So, we walked through the buildings, we were able to physically see those classrooms and adjust those numbers. And this uh the blue table as you're seeing is what our current buildings are operating as. You can see that with the uh data that we collected in person based on a count of 28 kids per class. These are the projections of what the capacities are for all of those buildings. Now you can see in the next column over the third blue column is the current building enrollment for
070the 23 24 school year. Those numbers are what was submitted to the state of Michigan and certified as our student counts for each of those buildings. So those numbers show that we are below in every single building the capacity of those buildings. A critical piece is the last uh column that you see in the blue slide, which is the current building utilization. It's critical to look at this percentage because the state of Michigan recommends that school districts buildings be between 80 to 90% utilized. What that means is that the building is able to financially sustain itself. There's enough kids in the building to sustain the cost of operating that building. So, as you can see in our in our presentation that only two of our schools right now are within that 80% threshold that the
071state of Michigan recommends. All of our other schools, we have two that fall in the 70% range and then we have four elementaryaries that fall within the 60% range with our Hoover Middle School being at 69% and our West Middle School being at 72%. So when we looked at these utilization numbers, the building capacities, the enrollment of these buildings, we know that there was room and there was wiggle room in the district to be able to consolidate to save money so that we're able to eat away at that deficit that the district is um heading into. So working with multiple leaders in the district, we developed the consolidation plan that you see right there in the green. Um before we get into the utilization piece of that, um we want to take the time to
072kind of highlight what is that utili what is that consolidation plan for the Taylor school district and be open and uh honest with where we're headed in the next two years with the Taylor school district. So basically at this point we realize that there are certain buildings that we are going to have to close and reposition students so that we are best utilizing our facilities and that we are being fiscally responsible going forward. So we really have to reimagine and reinvent the way we do things at both the elementary and at the middle school level. Essentially at the end of this school year um the first movement that we would need to take place is that we would be closing Eureka Heights Elementary School and that we would be moving the students from Eureka Heights
073to both Holland and to Mcdow. From there, um the plan as it currently states that that we're putting forth right now that we are proposing would be that we are going to move uh Kenyan Elementary School at the end of this year to Johnson Elementary School where the early childhood center is and the early childhood center at Johnson will move to Eureka Heights. So those are the the moves that we would be working on for the end of this school year. Um we would have Kenyan is going to sit vacant because it's going to be prepared for what happens in step two uh the following school year. >> Um and in addition to the first year, we'll also be moving our utilities department out of its current building and moving it into the front end
074of Career Center North. So the classes that are still at Career Center North, the construction, the culinary, those would remain where they're at, but the front part of that building would become our utilities department. Um and in in lie of that we would be demolishing the utilities building that's located on Pine Street. Moving into year two, this is where we see a restructuring at our middle school level. So you'll see that for our middle schools, we will be moving our seventh and eighth grade students into West, making TA or West the seventh and eighth grade building for the Taylor School District. Kenyan Elementary would become the new sixth grade for the Taylor School District. In all of those changes, we would rename the campus Taylor Middle School, so you would have one name under both
075buildings. Um, and we also acknowledge that when we do that campus style, we will also be making alterations to ensure that when our kids are are commuting from building to building for their elective classes, that we will provide that secure, safe walkway. So we know as we are going to talk about later on the alterations that we're proposing to all of our district's properties that you'll see in the slides ahead. >> So when you look at this slide here on the utilization um on the green chart and you look at the bottom that is where it's talking about as the plan was to move both middle schools into current Taylor High School. That shows you what the utilization rate would have been if we went forward with that plan. So currently we have a utilization
076rate in our middle schools of you know 69% and 72% but when we put them into that uh high school facility it's going to drop that utilization to 42% and that would be something as we said very concerning considering the state recommends 80 90% utilization uh and we would be dropping that far by by proceeding with that as the plan. So for the second part of the year 2 plan, we'll also see additional restructurings at the elementary level. Uh the proposed plan is that Randall Elementary would be relocated to Hoover Middle School and that would be renamed Randall Elementary. That building will also have alterations done to it to make sure that we accommodate to make it an elementary. The second part would be closing of Taylor Parks Elementary and we would be demolishing the
077Taylor Parks Elementary building and those kids would be split between the new Randall Elementary as well as Blair Moody Elementary School. Um, with the old Randall building, we will also be demolishing that building as well. Um, as you can see, the reason why these buildings are being consolidated the way they are is because what we're showing you on the green table. So, similar to the last table, the blue one, the first row is the building names. So, we'll be we'll be going from eight elementaryaries to six elementaryaries with one middle school instead of two middle schools. In the second row, you'll see that the expected building capacities. Now you can look and see that there is a difference in the capacities. That is because after our alterations that we're proposing to those buildings, the capacities
078of those buildings will increase. Um specifically, we want to highlight one thing too. When we're looking at capacities, we are taking into account our district will strive to meet a 28k classroom size. We are not looking when we consolidate to make classrooms 30, 35 or 40 kids. We know that's not functional for education. We know that that is not a productive learning environment. So our plan and proposal accounts for class sizes to be at 28 kids per room. So you can see that with the increase of the building's uh capacities, our expected enrollment for the 2025425 school year is shown right in the third row of the green. So you'll see at Meyers Elementary, our enrollment is expected to be at 358 students. Holland 362 students. McDall 45 students. Blair Moody 454 students. Kenyan Elementary
079at 416 students and then the new Randall Elementary at 657. Our Taylor Middle School campus will have a total expected student enrollment of 1,050 kids. But what again the critical thing we want to look at in this table is on that last column, the expected building utilizations. You can see that with this consolidation plan, every single building from the elementary to the middle school level hits the state threshold of that 80 to 90%. Um, so you'll see that Meyers is at 84% capacity. Holland is at a 91% utilization. McDall is at an 87% utilization. Blair Moody is at a 92%. New Kenyan is at a 92%. New Randall is at a 90%. and Taylor Middle School would be at a 84% utilization. Um, and just if you look at the very bottom of the page,
080we did kind of a breakdown of an overall highle look of the district. So you'll see in the red slashpink table the elementary level current enrollment and utilization our buildings if you take the capacities of all eight elementaryaries right now our elementaryaries are sitting at a 70% utilization after this consolidation plan our elementary buildings will be sitting at a 90% uh utilization rate which again meets that state threshold to financially sustain a school in operating At the middle school level, you'll see that our current utilization is at a 71% when you take both Hoover and West and add their capacities. And then what you'll see is under the new consolidation plan, it'll put our DIS our middle school utilization at 84% which again meets that state threshold to financially sustain schools in our district. So
081these slides here, what they do is they're kind of outlining what we had just said. Essentially, these next few are the ones the the moves that would be taking place uh at the end of this school year. So the first one is that relocation of Kenyan to the uh Johnson Early Childhood Center and we would retain the name Kenyan Elementary and it would just be we would be moving it over uh to a new location at that point. The next is that we would be uh closing Eureka Heights. As we said, uh we would be moving the students to Mcdow and to Holland. And then we would uh turn what is existing as Eureka Heights into the Eureka Heights Early Childhood Center. And then the last for the end of this year would be that
082the utility department would move out of its location on Pine Street in the former Pine Elementary School and they would come to Career Center North. uh at that point. >> So in year two, this is just rehighlighting the Hoover and West Middle School uh combination into the Taylor Middle School campus. So you'll see that again, West Middle School will house our seventh, eighth grade students. Kenyan would house our sixth grade students. They would be renamed Taylor Middle School and it would be one campus consisting of two buildings. Again, later on in this presentation, we'll walk through those alterations to show you how we're going to make that functional on that property. Um, and then this next one is the Randall Elementary moving to Hoover Middle School. So, this will happen again at the end of
083year two. So, those students wouldn't start until the fall of 2025 in that building. The current Randall Elementary School would be closed and demolished as those students would be transferred over to the Hoover the new Randall Elementary School. Um again, Hoover would be renamed Randall Elementary School as well. Uh for Taylor Parks, we would be closing the Taylor Parks building and those students would be split between the new Randall Elementary School and the Blair Moody Elementary School. Um, and then with the building, the Taylor Parks Elementary School building, that building would be demolished. So, we know that with all of these alterations at our elementary level, we need to clean our district's boundaries up. We know that currently the way that our district has our elementary boundaries is not sustainable. We have parts of elementaryaries
084that are islands, so they go from one side of the city all the way to the other. With this consolidation plan, what we're proposing is cleaning up those boundaries and making it functional and efficient for those buildings. We know that this comes with a lot of change. We know that it comes with building changes. It comes with you may be going to school with your friends at one place and then going to a whole new school. We understand that. But we also understand this is all in the effort to make our district financially sustainable because we are facing that looming deficit. Um, as you can see in this map, the gold or the yellow is the proposed New Holland elementary boundaries. The light purple is the new Randall Elementary boundaries. The pink is the new
085Blair Moody Elementary boundaries. The darkish purple is the new Kenyan elementary boundaries. The green is the McDall elementary boundaries and then Meyers is the uh blue elementary boundaries. So, we know as we go through this process that some of our buildings are going to need to be updated. We're going to need to be able to accommodate what's going to come through with these moves. And so we're going to kind of talk through some of the elementary schools and the middle school piece to to kind of outline some of the things we see that are going to be necessary. So the first one up here is the uh current Johnson Elementary School uh the proposed Kenyan Elementary School. So in this uh outline of the building, you see that we have uh classrooms that are colored
086in green. those color classrooms that are colored in green and you'll see this on each of the maps. These are the classrooms we know that are needed for general education and special education programming. But we also recognize that in elementary schools there are other programs, other needs that they must have classrooms dedicated for. Be it the library, be it a sensory room, a a music room, like we know we're going to have those needs in each school. So, we've outlined those needs in the orange classrooms that you can uh see up there. So, in terms of the Johnson Elementary School, we have a building capacity that is going to be at 450. We're projecting the enrollment to be at 416. And again, the key is keeping those class sizes to where it's at 28, not
087going to where we would consider uh the contractual max that is allowed uh for our teachers. We know that in this facility, we're going to have to look at new windows that one of the biggest things is the parking lot. Uh and you did see that that was in our discussion that we we had earlier um with Mr. Kent when he came to the microphone because the the current Johnson parking lot is just not going to be sustainable for uh a full elementary school at this point and that is why that has become a point of priority. Um they would need the Kenyan playground would be moved over to this location. uh we have already discussed with the uh playground companies that that is something that they can do and it is something that uh
088they can do rather easily to move what we have put in from the bond already. Um, we also know that there'll be a new storage shed necessary and that we would also in the courtyard where I think believe currently there is a playscape. Um, we would take that playscape which would go with the uh preschool program. Um, but we would convert that space to an outdoor educational space for the school to use. >> So, at I believe is it McDonald? My face is okay. at the Mcdal Elementary School, the proposed alterations, and this is going to be very similar to Meyers as well because Meyers and McDall are identical buildings. Um, you'll see that 115 that room currently, what we are proposing is to convert that into a classroom. So, you'll see that we are
089going to extend the wall back into the library. We would make that a classroom. 113 is another alteration that we would be making to the building. Currently, they're two resource rooms and they're small. What we're proposing is to kick that wall back to make it flush with the rest of the building to be able to open that space up to convert that into a classroom. With those alterations, you can see that it allows us to increase our building capacity to 475 students there at McDow. Uh the expected enrollment is 415 students and again keeping to 28 students per classroom. The building improvements that we are proposing for that building would be new windows, the additional classrooms I talked about, flooring improvements, door installations to ensure that we have secure exterior doors as well as interior
090doors into these little corridors between the classrooms because that will be where a lot of our student services staff are. Um, in addition, we would be looking at providing a additional storage shed at that building as storage would need to be expanded there at the building. So, our next building that would need uh to be addressed and this is where we would have to definitely make some changes that would be quite different from where our current layout is at Holland Elementary. So when you look on this uh map here, the if you notice where we have listed as a classroom as room 116, that is what is currently being used as the entrance. So we know that we would have to build a wall and construct out where we're building a space for two classrooms
091to fit in there. Again, these would be the classrooms that we're using for those sensory rooms, for the music rooms, for those items. And hence I know because some asked about uh 116 and the size that would be looking at a spot for that sensory room that the school would need. So again what's in the orange that's what we're looking at for those needs. And then the other classrooms would be for the special education and the general education programming. The other big piece of note if you look at room 104 on there uh that is currently the office space for Holland Elementary. So again, we would have to do similar to what we're doing on the other side of the hallway and we'd have to make build that out and make that as classroom space
092to make this uh it work. We would move the main entrance because like I said that's currently at 116, but the main entrance would go to the doorway that is on the cafeteria currently. And if you notice in yellow right there that is built around that spot at that main entrance, that's the area that would become the offices for Holland Elementary School. And when the building was originally built, that was the offices too. So it can accommodate those needs. >> So again, as much of our properties, uh we are looking at there are going to be some other necessary improvements that go into it. Uh particularly, I know at Holland, the windows are in really bad shape and that would be something that we do need to uh address at that point. Um, again, we'd
093be looking at the additional classrooms and we would be looking at uh making sure that we are taking care of flooring uh changes through this process as well and making sure that the portable that's outside is renovated and can be used for storage uh for the building. So, now moving ahead, looking at the Taylor Middle School uh campus, the former West building would be considered building one of the campus. Um, so there are going to be major alterations that are going to be needed that are needed to be made at this building as it will be our one middle school. So because of that, we'll have to make that building ADA compliant. As you can see, we'll start at the yellow classroom number two. That is what we're proposing to be our PO High classroom
094for that building. And that is mainly because it's the only classroom in that building that butts up to bathrooms. And we know that we have to have those doorways cut in to allow those kids in that program to enter that bathroom and out of that bathroom. >> And and for clarification, those bathrooms as they currently stand, they are used for events. So they typically the administration at West uh does not have those open for student use because those are event bathrooms. So during the day, it would remain that way that it would be closed to other students but open for the POHI. And then in the evening if we have an event, we'd make sure that it's closed off for the POHI rooms but available for events still. >> Um right above that you'll see
095classroom number one. That is the current band and choir room. Again, given the fact that we are combining two middle schools, we know there may be an additional need for space in our performing arts classes. So for our band and choir. So the proposal is that if need be, we would expand that to make it a larger band room to accommodate more students in there. Um, classroom number three would be our new choir or proposed choir room. Um, and then classroom number four, again meeting that need for a sensory room. Uh, and then right between number three and four would be that new maintenance office as well at that building. Um, as we make our way down that hallway, number four, you'll see there's an elevator room. So, this is again a component because we're
096making that building the one middle school. It would be have to be ADA compliant. So, we would be putting an elevator in that building. Um, and it's a perfect fit as right now it sits as a concession stand and it sits as a maintenance room. So, we know we can move the maintenance room further down the hall um and be able to put the equipment in there because right above that on the second floor you'll see the fan elevator room. Currently, that space is split into two rooms. It's a storage room and then it's also um the fan room. So, we would just knock the wall down and be able to build the elevator up to that second floor to make it ADA compliant. >> And and we do know because they did put a
097lift in at West uh last year, like that is still an option, but we know when we have a full POI program in the building, the lift does not move very fast. We're going to need uh other options as well. >> Um and then when we look ahead down that hall across from the elevator room, you'll see the hallway that's between the gym and the cafeteria. The proposal is that that is the hallway where our students would be entering and exiting to get to the other building number two on the campus. So, we would have that hallway be where students enter and exit to get to the uh next building for their elective classes. The purple room that's right there next to the entrance is the proposed new security room. That way, we're ensuring that
098the students entering our building are our students, as well as ensuring that we have security that's near that student walkway. So, in case anything were to happen, we can have people on site right away. Um, and then we'll also be having security like we do at the high school that's monitoring the grounds as well. Um, and then as we make our way down to the library, you'll see that there are the classroom that's across from it um is being converted into additional offices. This is to support our student services. So, this is our attendance agents, our Dina students, our EL teachers, our resiliency coaches. We know that there's additional need for spaces in those rooms. Um, and that is also on the second floor too. You'll see right next to room number 34. Those additional
099offices would be up there as well. So, this takes us to what we'll say as building two of the Taylor Middle School campus. This is what is currently Kenyan Elementary School. Uh, one of the things and we we do need to talk about uh between both of these buildings is that there would have to be a major alteration to the parking lot as it currently stands. Um, currently, if you've ever been between Kenyon and West, there's a long row of parking that goes between the two buildings and it leads up to a big loop uh at the other end. In order for us to have a secure walkway that we put in between the two buildings, that's going to have to be shortened up significantly. And that is where we would propose that we would
100have a bus loop. By doing that, uh we are know that we're going to have a need for obviously more parking on this campus. Um but be it that this is becoming all middle school and that we are moving the Kenyan playground uh to Johnson Elementary School, we know that where the current playground is that can become parking for these uh these locations as well. So there' be major major impact on what we have for the parking there. And then that allows us to have that walkway between the two buildings. If you're looking on the map there and you see the two classrooms in yellow, uh the door at the end of that hallway, that would be the entry and exit between the two schools. And the two yellow classrooms is where we would propose
101for the uh POI program when it comes to the sixth grade students. That is where we would locate those facilities. Um again that purple area that's where we would be talking about for a security office for this location. Uh how this lays out a little differently in the elementary schools. We talked about the orange uh colored classrooms as being ones for like sensory rooms, music essentially since we're looking at this from a middle school standpoint. Those would be used more for our elective classes. and we have put them on the end of the building closer to that entryway because there is that potential that you could have seventh grade or eighth grade students traveling over to here for a class that would take place in this location. Um, and because of that, we didn't want
102those all the way at the other end of the building, making it harder to travel to or going past all the classrooms that would have the sixth grade uh general education and special education classes going on. So, was trying to be very cognizant of where we were placing that. Uh we do also recognize that as this becomes a middle school there is going to be a different need in what currently we have as offices as we staff this with uh principles. So we did uh put in additional office space um and and I can't see right number nine is where you would see that uh office space that we would be putting in as addition. Um, a key thing to highlight is that when we talk about a secured covered walkway, that would go from
103entrance to entrance. So, when the moment those kids walk out, it'll be a secure and covered walkway all the way to the point when they enter the next building. We aren't proposing it just to be open and it's a sidewalk. No, this would be definitely be able to to direct the kids in one direction and one direction only. So, the next building that we wanted to highlight alterations on is what would be the new Randall Elementary and the former Hoover Middle School property. Um, so as you can see, the building will have a capacity of roughly 725. The expected enrollment should be around 657 students. With this building, we know there's a unique aspect to it in the sense that some of the classrooms, if anyone's ever been into Hoover, they are small. Some of
104those classrooms are small. And to say that we're going to fit 28 kids in those that building or in a classroom is unrealistic. So that's why you'll see that change from 25 to 28 because we know that the physical space needs to accommodate the amount of students that it would uh be functional for learning. Um, you'll see in this building as well, classroom number six, that's currently the POHI room. Right now, that is two separate rooms, but it's truly not two separate rooms. It has a large cutout that connects the two. Um, what we're proposing is just to fully remove the wall and make it one large classroom. Um, you'll see the yellow rooms, which are three and nine, and that is the proposed sensory rooms. And that's because we know that with this building
105being larger, there's going to be a higher need for those rooms. Um, as you can see in classroom number one, that's the former band room. So that would be similar to a music room for the elementary. Classroom number two, which is the current choir, that would be the steam room. And then it does have a separate gym and cafeteria. So our gym classes will be able to operate uninterrupted um during our lunch program because that building is so large. Um, all the rest of the classrooms you can see those will be general ed and special education classrooms. But the last major renovation we want to highlight is around classrooms number 21, 22, 23, and 24. Currently, there's not a hallway that connects those classrooms. What we're proposing is to build a hallway that connects them.
106And that's because if you look, if you've ever been to Hoover, um, if you're in classroom 21 to get to classroom 22, you have to walk through that classroom. That's not functional for an elementary, nor is it functional for a class. So, we would extend that hallway down there so that way there's direct access into those rooms, as well as adjusting the rooms to make sure that they're equally distributed in size. Um, with this, the building improvements that we're considering are the air conditioning and heat fixes to the building. So, this will be an elementary that has air conditioning in it. Um, we have a double playground installation. So that double playground installation is to meet the needs of those kids. So we would be taking the Randall Elementary playground as well as the Taylor
107Parks playground and putting that at that Randall location. Um as we talked about the additional hallway, the classroom uh wall removals, roofing and ceiling fixes mainly around that cafeteria area. The roof on the building is mostly brand new except for that cafeteria area. Um, and then just general classroom improvements, making sure that we're painting and making sure the flooring is correct. Next, we have uh proposed alterations for Blair Moody Elementary School. As Blair Moody currently stands, it does not need major renovations in terms of moving classrooms, creating new classroom space. what exists there currently would fit the needs of what uh students would be coming to Blair Moody. Uh more importantly, what Blair Moody needs is upgrades in terms of the parking lot. It needs uh windows that would need to be replaced. Uh we
108would need to talk about moving another one of those playgrounds. Uh making sure they have an additional playground. And then um we know that there are some issues with the heating and that would be something else we would have to address. Um, as I spoke about before, the Meyers alterations, they're very similar to McDall. Um, we would just be building that additional classroom number 11 as well as the additional classroom number nine. Uh, the key improvements of this building would be new windows. Currently, they are actually getting two new storage sheds. So, that is actually being done by our students and the building trades program. So, that is actually being met that need. Um, and and also for that building, we know that there's going to be exterior updates needed as well. And what we
109mean by that is repainting of the trim around the building. Um, because we know that there's a buildup of algae and it it doesn't look the greatest. And so, we want to make sure that we're improving that building to have a great look on the outside. Um, with those alterations, that increases our our capacity of the building to 425. Our expected enrollment of that building would be 358 and again we are committed to making that 28k classroom commitment. So um that is kind of everything we have out there as proposed as alterations and what we would be looking at going forward. We know that we've thrown a lot of information out in a very short amount of time. So, we are looking that we will be scheduling a special board meeting on January 8th to
110take questions and answers because we're going to need a lot of time, I know, in the community to process everything that we've put out there and we want to be able to to best answer questions for everybody. At that point, we will also be putting up on the website a spot where people can start submitting questions now so that we can start to answer and we can start to prepare to uh give the community even further information as we go forward. >> So, just to reiterate, the reason why the reason why we are doing this is because our district is on that path to hit a financial deficit in this next school year. We have to take actions so that way our district isn't put at risk. We know that we have time. With doing
111this plan, it buys our district an additional four to five years. But with these alterations, our district will be looking to save about roughly $3 million a year in operating costs, which cuts that deficit in half. So with that, it buys us enough time. And our other um goal is through natural attrition is how we would meet the need of the remaining amount. We know that there's a high uh volume of retirements coming in the district and so we know that there are going to be ways that our district can look to rightsize our staffing in the district. Um and our commitment is out there that we are not looking to lay individuals off. We are not wanting to cut pay of our individuals. Back when Mike was here in this district, the district took
112every single staff member took a 10% pay cut. Mike Mike said it perfectly. It's not acceptable. It's not acceptable to ask that of our staff when they did it once so that we weren't in this position again. >> And I'll and I'll say that because when our staff took that that pay cut, it was with the understanding, it was with a promise that we wouldn't find ourselves in this boat again. And that is why it is just absolutely not acceptable for us to be able to go back to our employees and say, "Hey, you're going to have to cover the cost of this. It's just not where we need to be." And it's and we also know from the vantage point of our families and our students, cutting staff is not where we need to
113be either. So, the place we need to be right now is making sure that we are right sized on our facilities and that we're using everything to its fullest potential. Is there any discussion? >> Moving on to item number eight, action items. And I just want to reiterate before we get into this, the action for this plan will not be taken during this. It'll be taken after public comment to give the audience the abilities action items. Number one, out of state field trip request, Cedar Point policies 2340 and policy 8640. It is recommended the board of education approve the following outofstate field trip request West Middle School, Cedar Point, Sanduski, Ohio, May 30th, 2024. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Meyers. Is there a second? >> Second. That >> Mrs. Thomas, >> Mr.
114Thomas? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Shufeld? >> Yes. >> Mr. Wright? >> Yes. >> Miss Black is Yes. Mr. Heath. >> Yes. >> Mr. Meyers. >> Yes. >> That carries 70. >> Number two. Over. That's not an overnight, is it? >> It's out of state. Okay. Out of state field trip request, imagination station policy 2340 and policy 8640. It is recommended the board of education approve the following out of state field trip request Eureka Heights Elementary Imagination Station Toledo, Ohio, February 9th, 2024. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Meyers. Is there a second? >> Second by Mr. Heath. Mrs. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Shufelt. >> Yes. >> Mr. Wright. >> Yes. >> Black is a yes. Mr. Heath. >> Yes. >> Mr. Myers. >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas.
115>> Yes. >> Motion carries 70. Number three, overnight conference request. Grand Rapids file 6550. Is recommended. The board of education approved the overnight conference request for James Bergler, Victoria Fras, Marquita Moore, and Brian Hor. >> Razor. I know I had that and I le messed it up. Anyway, to attend the Michigan Music Conference January 25th through the 27th, 2024. Is there a motion? >> Motion. Motion by Mr. Meyers. Is there a second? >> Second by Mr. Thomas. >> Mrs. Shfeld. >> Yes. >> Mr. Wright? >> Yes. >> Miss Black? Yes. Mr. Heath? >> Yes. >> Mr. Myers? >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas? >> Yes. >> That carries 70. Motion number four. Taylor Association of Central Staff Administrators taxa memorandum of understanding. It is recommended the board of education approve the
116MOU between the Taylor School District and the Taylor Association of Central Staff Administrators taxa regarding the retirement incentive. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Myers. Is there a second? >> Second. M. Okay. Mrs. Thomas Mr. Wright >> yes >> Miss Black is yes Mr. Heath >> yes >> Mr. Myers >> yes >> Mr. Thomas >> yes >> Mrs. Thomas >> yes >> Mrs. She felt >> yes. >> Motion carries 70. >> Taylor Principal Association TPA memorandum of understanding. It is recommended that the board of education approve theou between the Taylor School District and the Taylor Principles Association TPA regarding youth retirement advancement. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Meyers. Is there a second? >> Second by Mrs. Thomas. Miss Black is a yes. Mr. Heath. >> Yes. >> Mr. Myers. >>
117Yes. >> Mr. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Shufeld? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Mr. Wright? >> Yes. >> Motion carries 70. Number six, Taylor Federation of Teachers TFT Memorandum of Understanding. It is recommended the board of education approve theou between the Taylor School District and the Taylor Federation of Teachers TFT regarding the retirement advancement. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Myers. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Have Mrs. Thomas. >> Mr. Heath? >> Yes. >> Mr. Myers? >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Shufelt? >> Yes. >> Mr. Wright? >> Yes. >> Miss Black is Yes. Motion carries 70 number seven 26M Taylor School Support Staff Association Memorandum of Understanding. It is recommended the board of education approve theou between the
118Taylor School District and the 26M Taylor School Taylor schools support staff tssa regarding the retirement advancement. Is there a motion? Motion >> motion by Mr. Meyers. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Is that Mrs. Thomas again? >> Mrs. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Is that Mr. Myers? >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Shufelt? >> Yes. >> Mr. Wright? >> Yes. >> Miss Black? Yes. Mr. Heath? >> Yes. Motion carries 70. Number eight, request to hire director of special education policy 3120. It is recommended the board of education approve the hiring of Erica Smith for the position director of special education. Salary for the position will be $91,296. CD1 prrated. Miss Smith's start date will be Monday, January 29th, 2024. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr.
119Meyers. Is there a second? >> Second by Mr. Thomas. Mr. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Shel. >> Yes. >> Mr. Wright. >> Yes. >> Miss Black is Yes. Mr. Heath. >> Yes. >> Mr. Meyers. >> Yes. Motion is carried 70. Number nine, request to hire dean of students housing 3120. It is recommended the board of education approve the hiring of Ryan. Is it B? >> By for the position dean of students at West Middle School. Salary for the position will be $80,000. Step one prrated Mr. Revy. Start date will be Monday, January 8th, 2024. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Meyers. Is there a second? >> Second by Mrs. Thomas. Mrs. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Shufelt? >> Yes. >> Mr. Wright? >> Yes. >> Black? Yes. Mr.
120Heath? >> Yes. >> Mr. Meyers? >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Motion is carry 70. Number 10, request to hire student support staff policy 3120. It is recommended the board of education for the hiring of Miguel Bar for the position. Student support provider at Meyers Elementary kindergarten through 2 grade. Salary for the position will be 40,000 prrated. Mr. Vargas's start date will be Monday, January 8th, 2024. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Meyers. Is there a second? >> Second by Mr. Heath. >> Mrs. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Shufeld. >> Yes. >> Mr. Wright. >> Yes. >> Miss Black is a yes. Mr. Heath. >> Yes. >> Mr. Myers. >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Motion is carried. 70. Number 11, Johnson Moody parking lot policy 6320. It is
121recommended the board of education approve an award DEA group for the civil engineering services contract pending final negotiations of the term by the district's legal council. The project award recommendation for the Taylor School District Civil Engineering Service RFP is 56,700. This total includes a project award amount to pea group for $36,700 and a project contingency amount of $20,000. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Meyers. Is there a second? >> Second by Mr. Thomas. Miss Black is a yes. Mr. Keith, >> yes. >> Mr. Meyers, >> yes. >> Mr. Thomas, >> yes. >> Mrs. Thomas, >> yes. >> Mrs. Shefeld. >> Yes. >> Mr. Wright? >> Yes. >> Motion is carried. 70. >> Moving on to item number nine on our agenda, the superintendent report. So, um, first off, I again, I know I
122said it a few moments ago, but I I can't reiterate this enough. I encourage everyone in the community. I encourage all of our staff to take time, process what we've uh laid out today. It is a lot that we are asking of this community. uh I know these are the correct things that we need to do to make ourselves fiscally responsible so that we are providing the best opportunities going forward. But I just want to take that moment for everyone to to do that reflection and just remind that uh we need to take care of ourselves through this as well and find those supports, find those things that are going to help you process uh through this. Uh, the only other piece I want to add to my superintendence report is, and I'm going to
123put on my old history teacher uh, hat for a few moments. I I love when I have the opportunity to do that, but um, and I know I put this in uh, my newsletter for this month, but I just wanted to talk about uh, an event that took place in World War I during the first year of World War I. And it was a truce that happened at Christmas in 1914. It's one of the most remarkable stories of what humanity can be when we strive to do the right things and we strive to to recognize the good in other people. And I think that's very fitting at this time of year and especially with what we're talking about. But essentially at Christmas in 1914 on the western front in France, you had both sides, the
124allied and the central power sides, they stopped fighting. They came out of their trenches, their nasty trench warfare that was taking place, and they actually went to the people who were their enemy, who they were told to hate, who they were told to shoot, and they met in the no man's land, and they celebrated Christmas together. And they sang songs and they gave gifts to one another. And they did these things because they could recognize that the other people on the other side were humans as well. And they were just being told what to do, being given orders to go in there and fight. And when they had to return, because eventually the generals took their course and said, "You got to return to your trenches." And then they asked these people to open fire
125on each other again. And people couldn't do it because they now knew what it was and it caused a major problem. And hence why you know when you hear of wars and things that take place now doesn't happen because when we have those items and when we build those things and we fight and these things happen, it's a way for us to not recognize that humanity in other people. And I just want to uh us to encourage each other to find that time this holiday season to look at others, find the goodness, and recognize that in other people. Thank you. Moving on to item number 10, our consent agenda, Miss BL. >> Consent agenda policies 166.1 and policy 6470. Number one, minutes from December 6th, 2023 regular board meeting. Number two, consolidated items, payment of
126current bills, certified, non-certified, and administrative reports. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Myers. Is there a second? >> Second by Mrs. Thomas. >> Mr. Heath? >> Yes. >> Mr. Myers? >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Shufelt? >> Yes. >> Mr. Wright? >> Yes. >> Mr. Miss Black is a yes. Motion carries 70. >> Moving on to item number 11. Items scheduled for next agenda, Monday, January 8th, 2024. We have our special board meeting, which is a community Q&A. Next, we have item number 12, which is public comment. Thank you to all those who could be with us tonight. We understand the importance of continuing to keep you informed and providing an opportunity for you to be heard. Public comment will begin with those in person
127and then move to our online audience. For those in person, please step up to the microphone and state your name and address for the record. For after the inperson comment, our online audience will need to find the raise hand symbol for our moderator to recognize and unmute you. Please take into consideration common courtesy, refrain from any personal attacks, and please keep your comments to three minutes or less. We will provide and assist with timekeeping. So each guest will have the will so each guest will be able to monitor their own time and know when to conclude. So all who wish to speak will have an equal opportunity to do so. As a reminder, if there are any questions at this meeting or by some other avenue, Superintendent Michael Wager or his designate will work on
128getting those answers to you in a timely manner. In person, >> Caroline Pat 6860 Jackson. Um, first of all, you have such a soft voice. I didn't hardly hear anything that you said. So, if you could next time at the next meeting or whatever, and last meeting when I was at home listening on the Zoom, I couldn't hear what you were saying. And I know you just have a soft voice anyways, but if you can put that mic up, would really appreciate that. Um, for those of you, and I know a lot of people have already gone. Um, if you notice that we have some memorabilia out for the Taylor schools, not just our high schools, but we have middle schools and we have elementary schools back there. That's just a drop in the bucket
129of what we have collected since 19 or 2000, no 1997. Um, and so with all of this happening now, I'm going to have to come back and ask for more room because everything that's going to be changed and collected and and everything like that. So, I just want to kind of let you know I'm still around and you're going to be hearing from me again. A couple question I have um is I noticed when you did the maps for Holland and the sixth grade academy I did not notice the library. You know the other ones had library and a big block. So >> it was just because the map listed it but they they are >> so they do have a library. Okay. Thank you on that. And also um it was mentioned that the
130PRC um will be it will be moving here. >> Yes. >> But the print department is not moving. >> So we're looking at that specifically because the machinery is so large. So it might be the one thing that remains there. >> And if it does stay, you have one person there in that building. >> Not a good thing. Security-wise, safety wise, not a good thing. >> So we're also evaluating moving that machinery into this building housing here. >> That's one one concern I would really have is not to have someone one person in one building. So okay. Um I think that was it. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Megan Myers. I just have a few questions about the changes that are getting made in the district. Um, where are we getting the funding from
131this? Because I noticed you said that we almost in a deficit >> and like if we're almost in a deficit, how are we getting the funding for all these changes? >> So, I can highlight a key thing and this is something that I just want to make sure everybody is aware. When the school district passed our bond, each elementary building had a construction sheet that was done and submitted to the state and that is what also the voters uh voted on when they voted for the bond. So each elementary school already had a certain amount of money that was being allocated towards it. We are not pulling money from the high school. We are not pulling money from the middle school. What we're utilizing is that existing pot of money that is currently there for
132the uh elementary school. So, it's roughly around a million dollars each building um that was already allocated per the bond and what was submitted to the state and what the voters approved that money is there. Um and then in addition, because we are consolidating the buildings, that money that's freed up from us closing those buildings, that will be redispersed into the elementary so that we can meet those improvement. Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. So, it's a lot of information to hear. Um, a lot of misappropriation of funds from my understanding. Um, I first >> Sorry, >> can we have your name real quick? Sorry. >> Yeah. Sorry. I'm Courtney Anderson. I'm an ATA over at Johnson Early Childhood Center, possibly somewhere else. I don't know. Um, so my first question is, um, when this was
133all happening, Kyle, you've been on the board since 2021. How were you not aware of what was going on during that time period? >> Answer that. >> Yeah. Okay. >> So, I can I can share this with you. When the state of Michigan, so per the guidelines, the application specifically for SR3 does not come to the board for approval, >> right? >> Rather, the administration fills out that application and submits it. Our policies don't regulate that they have to bring that application to us. So what we discovered was that that application, the fact that it wasn't brought to us, counted for all those salaries. And so that's why we're here today because what we're unveiling through discoveries is that the application that was submitted, 98% of it was used towards salaries and benefits. >> So
134with that bond money or bond money, I'm sorry, the COVID money being misused. >> Was that illegal or was it legal? >> So it was approved by the state. The issue isn't that anything was illegally done. It was irresponsibly done. >> Perfect. >> There is no sustainability plan to sustain those salaries and benefits that they put the SSR dollars towards. >> Yeah. And again, as I said earlier, that's the big problem is because if you were going to put it into salaries and benefits, you needed to say like this is the cut off because they were quite clear like if we did there was going to be a cliff that right you would face. >> Well, yeah. Because the money hits at some point you can't going. Um, so then my other concerns is, um,
135being that I do work at Johnson, um, we are a growing building. Um, we already have numbers coming in from TOE that we're expected to grow. We've already hired a new special education teacher. Um, our building currently is basically maxed out um, with all rooms being utilized. So with this and the potential growth numbers from that building alone, do you not see predictions in the future where your elementaryaries would have grown to be bigger and then how do you take care of the overage of students? Where are they going to go? Or is it going to become one of those issues where there's now a flux in students and teachers are now teaching again 30 35 students like before COVID because all these COVID babies, they're hitting us. >> So um I can speak on
136that. So, specifically to the size of where the new early childhood center is, we're already talking with Lee to discuss that size of the building. Um, I know you all know Lee's on top of it. So, we're working with her just to make sure that if there are alterations to that building, what those could look like to meet that need for the preschool. Um, in addition, we have in our possession in the district, we do have two more district properties that they're off offline to the public or to the students, correct? Because they're rented out. And those specific buildings are the Fisher and Wearing buildings. So, those buildings will still exist because they're being rented currently in the school district. So, if there ever is that need for students because we're growing, then we do
137have those additional buildings to fulfill that need. Um, I do want to point out the one thing that we did acknowledge though is for the past 40 years our district has seen a decline in enrollment every single year for 40. This was the first year and it was a miracle that we actually grew. Um, and we're appreciative and we want to strive to retain that. Um, but we know we're also looking at the realistic history of where the Taylor School District is, but we do know for a fact that we do have those buildings as that buffer if needed. >> I have one quick question if I can get to the Okay. um if these so you have all these incentives to for people to retire. >> Yes. >> What happens when they don't when
138you don't get those numbers because I just got a list of everyone from 1995 all the way to now. What if those projections that you think are going to happen you don't hit it? >> So currently we've been talking with our unions um specifically to talk about if what are the expected numbers? I know at the middle school the thought and the estimate is that we're roughly going to have about 10 middle school teachers that are retiring this year. >> There's more with potential, but that's what we're expecting. >> And just alone tonight at one of the elementaryaries that I was presenting at, there were two teachers in the room that said they were retiring. So, I know that there are retirements that are in the system. We're going to account for those. um if
139we don't meet that threshold again we have that three to four years to three or four years of retirements to meet that deficit need to cover that deficit >> and that was why I wanted to speed up the timeline was to give us that information so we can start having those conversations >> well yeah keep from layoffs happy which I totally get um I appreciate you guys giving me time I was a lot more hotheaded before I came in here but I know you guys kind of walked into a mess and a lot And you know, I thank you for being more transparent than I than I thought you were going to be. Um, would you guys ever be opposed to actually going to schools and talking with staff? Because that meeting that's going to
140happen on the 8th, I think it's going to be out of control. There's going to be a lot of people. So, if you're not opposed, you know, >> no, that's been in our that's been in our talks as well. So yes, but yes, we're going to be doing the community Q&A as well as we're going to be talking with those buildings and going to those buildings and also hosting actual town halls at those elementary to talk to the families as well. >> Yeah, Johnson. >> Yeah, >> don't forget us, man. We got the littles, but like we're trying. Okay, we're mighty. >> Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Tess Martinez. I'm also part of the Johnson team. I'm a terra over there. My main concerns is when you have all these building maps and
141stuff, Johnson, the new school is nowhere to be found on there. I know you said they're moving between decades. I just want to know what's going to happen with the special ed kiddos there. So, I think the big part here is we know there's lots that goes into the licensing for the preschool program and we know that there are going to have to be upgrades and it was at a point where I don't think we could have laid it all out in one of those maps at this point because we're still putting all that together of what the licensing is going to require that >> but it will be done on time. Yes. >> Yeah. So our key our biggest thing is to when we look at those maps a lot of those class sizes
142are based on square footage. Um so we know that we have to get the square footage of all those rooms so that we know how many kids can be in those. So that's why the maps we couldn't put it on there today because there's a lot of loopholes license requirements we have to filter through which we're working with >> Rich Pratt 2443 Hayes um you mentioned wearing and that is my concern. Did you look at Eid restrictions on the schools you're closing? Wearing exists because you sold it to you're going to sell it and you couldn't. I want to make sure this district doesn't end up with more vacant property we can't do anything with that we have to face. >> So the buildings that would be so that Randall building that's being demolished and
143the Taylor Parks building that's being demolished both properties do not have deed restriction same with >> yes okay that my >> Stephanie Pratt same address as his >> I am here as a parent and an employee. I also work at Johnson. My first question actually is if Johnson is so critical to your plans, why were we not listed or handled as part of that utilization study? >> So that specifically the Johnson Elementary School as part of the utilization study. That's because of all of those again licensing restrictions that we have to be able to map out. So, when it comes to the square footage, we have to know the exact square footage because that determines how many students in that room, which then the students per room determines the building capacity. So, right now, we're
144working with our facilities team um to be able to measure out those rooms as well as taking into consideration the additional um four bathrooms that we would have to build at that building. Um >> and you've spoken with Miss McKenzie about the licensing concerns because last time it took over a year >> to get the building licensed. We have concerns that it would not be able to be done over a summer. >> Yeah. And we >> Yeah, we've been having those meetings currently having those discussions. Yes. >> My second question is um part of the reason that my understanding is part of the reason Johnson was closed as an elementary school and reopened as a preschool is because of its proximity to Blair Moody. So, how was moving Kenyon next to Blair Moody going to
145help any enrollment in the district? >> I'm not aware of why Johnson was closed. Um, I was a student in the district during that time. Um, but I know that when we're looking at the actual property, a key thing is we can't put an elementary there right now the way that it exists. That's why we are proposing those alterations to make that functional parking the in inflow and outflow of cars so that way it can be operational as a elementary. >> Okay. Is there a reason to not just move the Kenyan students to Eureka Heights? >> Uh the Johnson building is larger than that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And it would stay in in proximity to its uh current boundary ranges. >> Yes. So to put the Kenyan kids all the way across town,
146that would create more struggles because between the Kenyan boundaries and the Eureka Heights is Mixal Elementary. So again, we would be creating boundaries that have islands in >> I thought I saw on the map though that there was actually two separate locations for Meyer and >> so specifically that is the Inkingster portion of the community that we serve. So back when uh the Inkingster school district dissolved th they were split between three elementary schools in the district. So what you saw Meyers getting was that uh the Eureka Heights Inkingster portion that was attending Eureka Heights. >> Just to make sure I'm reading the map correctly though, we would have no elementary schools south of that or south of North. >> We would have Myers Elementary. >> Myers. Okay. Thank you. Um, sorry. >> You're good.
147I'm just joining the meeting again. I >> My name is Shirley Silva. I work at Eureka Heights and I just want to know where the money's coming from to renovate all these schools. So, we do have uh as we stated that there is uh bond money that's been allocated to elementary schools. Uh it's been about a million dollars that was that was put out to all of them. Um we would be using that money and we would be using the money from the buildings that were taken offline because they had money that was allocated to them and repurposing it in the needs of the other schools. So, and um my other question is the third party. Sorry. >> I said the third party pair of pearls. >> Okay. >> Would they have jobs? So, will
148we be coming first? >> Well, hire that. Well, again, we're doing our best to to not have to lose individuals and because we know that paraphererals are still going to be needed no matter needs of what's in their IEPs and what's they need uh what is mandated that they need is we're still going to need those positions. >> I have one more question off topic. Brighton has tailored buses there an hour early, eight of them sitting there. I just wondered why they're sitting in the parking lot an hour before they're needed. We can look into that. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. Uh, Bill Patz 6860 Jackson. I understand the savings you're looking at over the the time period, but where's the funds coming from to start all this? >> So, that's what
149we uh just answered previously. We said that and in the actual bond that the voters approved, there were worksheets for site work to be done at every elementary. So that was the playgrounds that was the money allocated for the playgrounds, the money allocated for furniture, and then general small site work at each building. Um, so roughly in the bond that the voters did approve, we're not touching any of the high school allocated funds. We're not touching any of the middle school allocated funds, right? >> We're just looking at what was allocated strictly for those elements. >> So there is money there. do all this funding in all the buildings that you're going to be moving. >> Yes. With the consolidation, it allows us to put a little >> because I understand you got to spend
150the money to make the money. >> Yeah. >> Okay. The other question I had was on the board there at the junior high at Hoover, you had 750 kids capacity. >> Yeah. >> But then when you flashed it up for the following year, it went to 725. >> Yep. >> But you're still looking at 28 kids per class. Shouldn't it be 25 kids per class? >> So, the key thing with >> the key thing with a middle school is your capacity is a little different because of the way that a middle school operates. At an elementary level, because the kids are stationary in one classroom, >> it means that they're not. Yeah, they're not. >> I understand. So that's why at a middle school level you might have a higher capacity even though um the
151classrooms >> and I believe you're you're referring to that capacity drop was when you looked at the POI room we would be taking that wall out so you're losing the classroom that the other thing I have is the high school now Taylor High School you guys already put funding into that building for the basketball scoreboards and also in the football fields and you just redid the track. >> Yeah. That's going to stay there for who? For the middle school sports. >> That's going to be middle school sports. >> Yep. >> Yes. >> So that that property will be utilized. The uh right now we're evaluating how we would want to do that. It would be the pool would be operated because it's the only competition pool in the district. The gym would make uh the
152middle school's competition gym and then the football field for middle school sports as well. >> Because everything's going to be Taylor Griffiths. >> Yes. Okay. Thank you. Hi, Ronda Dan II12720 Robert Street. I've been a part of the Taylor School since 1969. As a student, as a parent, as a teacher, and as a board member, and as a foundation member and I'm very proud of the district that I'm a part of. I know that the work that you're facing right now is very challenging and very difficult and problem solving is not an easy thing. and I was a part of the district when we took a 10% cut and I retired and I never recouped it. So, I really appreciate the time and the effort and the thought that every one of you are putting
153into these really important decisions that affect not just every student, every staff member and our entire community. And to even to limit the class size at 28 is phenomenal. As a teacher, I've had class sizes that were well over 30. And so, you're still considering the child and the education that they're going to get. And making improvements at every building is unbelievable. It's not something I've ever experienced. When I was a student, we had 24 elementaryaries. And a lot of decisions over the years that have been made have been in reaction to things and out of necessity. And it sounds like there's a there's a lot of information here, but it sounds like there's a lot of effort and thought that's gone into this plan and will continue to go into it that will consider
154every member of the district and the community. So, thank you. >> Is there any other in person? >> Um, my name is Tiffany Go. I'm a par pro at Kenyon for the AFC room and I'm a parent. My kids go to Kenyon. Um my daughter's in fourth grade right now and my question is like is she going to be able to go to Ky? So it's not >> so um in the proposed new boundaries what we look to do is try to preserve as much of that Kenyan a lot of the boundaries we try to preserve as much of those student populationations um for the main part the neighborhood that surrounds Kenyon Elementary all of those kids would still remain the same there is a section that would be going to McDow but that's the
155section that's by Allen and Pennsylvania. Um, my other question is is I know that the preschool gym is super small and I don't feel like that gym is big enough for all of the kids for lunch. >> Um, how are you guys looking to improve that? >> So, actually after discussions with our facilities um director and assistant director, the Eureka Heights gym is actually a larger size than the current Johnson. So, it's actually not by much. >> No, I think she was thinking Kenyon too. Kenyanh um my we don't know the exact square footage of the two gyms um but they are the similar it's a similar size um to what they are and >> are you guys promising the teachers from Kenyon to move to the new Kenyon. So, one of >> that's something
156that we are going to have to because there is contract language with our teachers union that dictates how those kind of things happen. And so, we will be having conversations with the teachers union on how to best handle these moves. So, I don't know that we have that answer yet because quite honestly, when I come back from break, my shift is really going to be into the staffing piece of all this and how we make this all happen. So, um I just we don't have that answer quite yet. we're we're expected and we have to follow the contractual language that's in each union's contract. So, that is something we have to work through and with the unions on. >> And then as a district full-time pro, um do you guys have a plan on where
157all the ASD classes are going to be moved like for the elementary? >> So, we are having those conversations but independent of what we're talking about uh currently. So again, that's something else we are looking at. Uh, you know, possibly having some changes going forward as well. >> As Erica joins on those conversations we had with Erica, we know that we had to fill that director position to then be able to have those conversations with the department to look at what our special education classrooms going to look like across the district at each building. >> Was kicked out of the meeting once again. So, Um, we could start represent >> uh the vote will be happening tonight. >> No, not >> you can't vote in close session. So yeah, >> we did want to structure
158it so that we had the opportunity to hear from public before >> Yes, we actually >> can we is there the online? >> Good evening. Can you hear me >> after the >> Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Okay. because the reception and audio is awful tonight. Um, happy Fields, 22670 Wood Creek, uh, retired from the school district after 35 years. And Mr. Thomas love the suit. Mr. Thomas, >> you wear suit. Oh, thank you. Well, true to form, I I can't agree with everybody agreeing. Um, I pretty much just have a statement. First, I want I I feel the need to apologize to Mr. Wagger um for being brand new with the intent of moving Kaylor schools forward and having been thrown into cleaning up the mess of the previous uh administration. Um,
159I don't want to offend any member of this board. I respect you as individuals and up to this point I have respected uh your your decisions. I however strongly disagree with this plan. Every elementary school in Taylor will be affected uh whether it be through school closing, students moving to different buildings or students having larger populations. Every family with elementary children will be affected. I know part of the intent is to try and improve the educational experience. However, I believe buildings are also part of that experience. If this is money driven, then I'd have some questions. Where was the oversight? Granted, you didn't have to know that it was COVID monies being spent, but you did have to approve payroll and you did you were able to ask questions as to where this money was
160going. That didn't happen. Um, why were we going why are we going to continue being administrative heavy and hiring for brand new positions tonight? Lastly, this board promised transparency. How transparent was the pre the preparation of this plan? Where were the committees? Where was the input from your stakeholders and administration? Where was the input from our families? I believe if this is implemented, you will lose trust and credibility with the public and your employees. Most of all, I fear a loss of Taylor School District families. Not that it matters, but I have lost trust with your decisions. I can't agree. Um, I can't agree. Moving our little people around like checkers on a board and disrupting their lives and their families and interrupting their education. I just have two questions. Number one, is the previous
161administration going to be held legally accountable for this situation? And number two, where was the board oversight? I know you're dealing with hard decisions and I know as individual as individuals, this is a tough decision to make. Um, I think that's it. Yeah, questions. >> Well, I was gonna say I know that we had difficult hearing because it was a little broken up the sound in the boardroom, but I I think we have the questions. Um if Mr. Lagger could >> So the questions were um are the previous administration are they going to be held legally accountable and then the second one was where was the board oversight and Kathy if I'm uh not paraphrasing you correctly please feel free to correct >> no that is correct. >> So for the first question is the
162previous administration going to be held legally uh reliable? Right now our district has not found anything illegal that they have done. What we have discovered was what they were doing was irresponsible. Um those are the two key things that we want to make sure everybody knows that what they were doing was not illegal. It was just irresponsible in the sense that there was no plan to sustain the salaries and benefits. Not a plan that was shared with the board. Not a plan that was presented that we knew about to sustain the expenses that SR3 was covering. Why did this board not question where the where the CO money was being spent? You he the previous administration could spend it the way they chose to. I I get that. But where was the board oversight saying,
163"Okay, you had many million. Where did you spend it? I want to see where you spent it. about the oversight. >> The oversight. Yeah. >> So, specifically to the grant um application, the board does not have oversight over what is submitted to the state as that is the district's administration job to fulfill that grant application and submit it. Um our previous assistant superintendent of elementary education and our CFO were the two individuals that signed off on that application. Um again, >> it's not the application, Mr. Wright. It's not the application. It's how it was spent. >> Not the application, but how it was spent. >> How it was spent. >> So again, we did not we were not made to know what that sustainable plan was to >> Why did you not question what he
164was doing with the money? >> Why Why wasn't there question? >> Why did you not question where the money went? The main reason why is because when the school board looks at the budget, specifically this grant dollar wasn't falling underneath the general fund. What this grant what the grant was falling under was a different category. So when we were evaluating our general fund dollars, the general fund was showing that we had a positive fund balance every single year. What we were not made aware was that when they moved salaries and benefits out of the general fund that eventually that general fund would have to absorb the grant dollars and there was no plan in place to sustain when those grant dollars that grant budget was going to then be absorbed into the general fund. >>
165Nobody asked what? Yes. >> Because again, the general fund showed substantial improvement every single year. >> Your oversight is over all of the money, not just general fund. >> Your oversight is over all of the all of the money, not just general fund. >> Absolutely. Yes, you are correct on that. We are absolutely responsible for the full oversight of that budget. Yes. But when we're looking at the state and what they're doing, then we need to look at also the general fund. And that's where the issue comes now is we're looking at the state coming in because our general fund would be falling below that threshold that the state requires us to have. >> All I'm saying is families are going to be hurt. Kids are going to be hurt. Employees are going to be
166hurt. And down the line, if we lose kids, you're going to experience layoffs. And we're still topheavy. >> So I can where we started from. >> Miss Fields, I can say that our district is doing everything in our power to avoid layoffs. That is not the direction nor the corrective action that we're going to be taking. At the current moment, we're are moving both will be taking a vote on the consolidation plan here tonight. but that is to protect our people. We know that yes, a school building is a home for our students, but it's the people that makes that home. We need to make sure we're protecting those people that take care of our kids when they're in those buildings. And that's the goal of this board. We're trying to protect our people because
167they're the ones that make those kids feel like they're in a a second home for most. But my last comment is this board has a very difficult decision and I believe if you vote this plan up, you are voting to implode our district. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um we can go back to our one inerson audience and then move forward. Um, first of all, are we still paying for Griff Mills as superintendent? >> No, he is no longer employed with the school. >> Right. But are we still paying out his contract? >> No. >> Oh, okay. No, sorry. There's word. So, I'm just trying to clarify on things and make sure >> everything's correct. Um, the other issue that I have is if you guys vote on this tonight without giving employees time
168to come up with their questions and really fully understand this. I mean, you threw this at us today. >> Like, I don't think it was appropriate nor fair to leave us hanging for a week with speculation, threatening people with jobs if they say anything. Uh, I'll just make that correction. No jobs were threatened if they said anything. >> I've heard a lot of people saying that if they spoke they would be threatened with termination. >> Absolutely not. We have no way of doing that, let alone the unions were present and that would have never flown. >> Well, when I was talking to my union >> um one of my union leaders, um he didn't even know about a lot of stuff that was going on. He's like, I have no idea. So, if people knew
169and could have told us, why didn't they? Because they knew about this on Friday. >> Are you talking about >> principles? >> The principles and the directors. >> Yeah. Why couldn't they tell us? >> Those individuals were told in advance so that way we were able to actually roll this out and have them feel comfortable. I think it would have been unfair to throw the building administrator into that presentation and then expect them to lead their staff um without having any understanding. the district was just doing their due diligence to make sure that we made sure we gave those principles and administrators the time to be able to digest so that way they could then support you as a staff member. Um, across the district, we met with a lot of those individuals. Um, and
170it was very well very well received that we talked to them beforehand. Um, for example, I was at Randall Elementary tonight and that was one of the things the principal said, I'm able to digest what I learned last week to then now support you all as you're learning this and as we're going through this together that you quote, if I'm not mistaken, was you're we're now on this journey together and we're able to provide and support each other. >> But we're not because you're voting on it tonight. >> Yeah, I hear your concern is whether we vote or not tonight is what >> No, and I get that. But my my other issue is we were kept in the dark and then just thrown this at us and then vote and then it's just going
171to be what it is. There's no there's no say. And >> coming from somebody who again, this is all hearsay because nobody's telling us anything that you're going to be resigning tonight >> is a concern. >> Which I mean, I'm serious. Like this is stuff that's going around. Like you guys have to understand when you don't communicate or you leave stuff in the in the balance hanging, this is what people do. I mean, sorry, 90% women. So, I mean, >> they're gonna run their mouth. It's I'm I'm being a very candid person right now. >> I'll say I appreciate you asking the questions because especially if rumors are going around, we want to be able to answer those and make sure that the facts are out there. I'm not resigning as a board member tonight.
172Okay? >> I am not resigning as a board member. Um, I'm here to make sure that I'm helping the district as we navigate this. Then all I can ask is I implore you guys before you vote is we need a little bit more from you guys because we've now gone through a bunch of different changes in the last three years with superintendants, board members. We don't trust you. We are all still a family whether we agree with you or not. We will always have each other's backs. But right now you guys unfortunately and I know some of you are teachers and you know I'm headed that way myself. But right now, this looks really shady after many years of getting stabbed in the back. So, for us to trust you that this is a good
173appropriate plan that we can be solid in, we have to we have to know that this is fully 100% transparent and leaving this up for a week and people going, "Oh, this school's closing. This school's closing. I don't know if this school's closing. Well, I can't say anything because I'll lose my job." I mean, that's that's scary. >> Yeah. And if there was any administrator that felt that it was not said during that meeting, I mean, you can ask other building administrators. It was not said during that um or district administrators. There's no threaten of job loss. Um it's just false. I don't know what else to say. It wasn't. It was walking them through the exact presentation that each building got today and having that conversation with them so that they were able to
174provide us with questions because >> we want them to be able to answer any that's going to come their way when as of today you guys all know as well. >> But we have questions too and our questions might pertain to your plans that could be >> potential in >> changing those plans and you might not be able to go through with certain things the way you want to. and we, you know, for you to just vote on it and that we have to trust that it's either going to go the way you say or that you will change it when you want because you realize, oh, we can't do this right now >> and then we know what I'm saying. >> No, I get it. Yeah. You're saying if we vote this through and
175then we know we have to make an adjustment, the trust isn't there to say like, oh, it's going to happen. Let us say I get what you're saying. Yes, >> that's all I I that's all I ask. give us the break >> and then if you guys decide you want to vote yes on it >> give us till January let us speak >> take you know take break let us all digest because a lot of people are hot right now I was hot about three hours ago I'm the assistant superintendent and I greatly apologize but you know it's a lot to be thrown at somebody I'm a parent where my kids go here >> Taylor High Hoover Taylor Parks >> I mean you're closing half my kids schools man but I can work with it
176if I can trust and I can believe in what you guys are doing and you're trying to fix it, >> but you got to give us some first. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Um, we have Michelle. >> Oh, one second. We just have one online. >> Good evening. I hope you guys can hear me. This is Michelle Hodkinson, 16201 Lauren. Um, I just I apologize for the scratchy voice. I got the bug that's going around. Um, I want to thank the board and everybody that was a part of making the event at Meyers so very, very special. It was such a proud moment and such a heartwarming moment to see the smiles on all the students faces and the staff's faces and it took a lot of work to make that come together and
177we so much appreciate that. And I also want to thank the board and uh Mr. Wagger and Kyle and everybody for their transparency and hard work on this um everybody that I've spoken to um has been very kind and thoughtful and I want to really appreciate say how much I appreciate that. You guys have a great evening and merry Christmas. >> Jamie McCoy, 10831 Westlake Street. I hadn't planned on speaking tonight, but after hearing a couple of people come up and address and ask have certain questions, especially regarding the rumors, um I talk my way through this, so please bear with me. Um as a longtime community member, a parent of recently graduated kids from preschool through the high school and now currently as a school district employee. Um I understood in our meeting earlier
178that this COVID fund was going to run out in September of 24 as we were facing the $4 million deficit. Um is there any way shape or form I'm sure question that this can either be done in smaller steps over the next two years. Is there a possibility of doing I don't want to say better planning but giving maintenance time to do what they need to do in the buildings to give the staff and the community time to adjust and um ask more questions. Is is there just any rhyme or reason why this entire process cannot be done in smaller steps or wait another school year? Is that COVID deficit September deadline that detrimental that it has to be done by the end of this school year to prep for the 2425 school? >> So,
179I can just say that when we're looking at the budget and we see that we're operating in that deficit each year we're accounting for an increase in that cost. So the longer that we wait to correct this measure, the long or quicker that we fall within that threshold of the state possibly coming. >> So it is detrimental to a certain degree that that September >> deadline. >> We have about probably four to five years of a positive fund balance left in the district. And that's why these two years we need to be able to correct that because we don't want to get to a point where our fund balance is so low. We want to still try to maintain that healthy fund balance. So that's why not waiting until that fifth year is crucial because
180then what our district is at is starting from scratch which we were at um previously. We don't want to get to a point where our district is below a 5% >> and in saying that I've always appreciated your transparency Kyle as a student when you were here coming before the board to speak on the various subjects you did helping to try to improve our school district. um you say the four to five year timeline. Yeah. >> So while I know we have to deal with our problems that we have currently and try to write and to stay out of red >> are there going to be talks currently to stave off that five-year possibility? Like what is what is the five to 10 year plan or is that just not practical at this point because
181we're busy dealing with what we're dealing with now? >> Can you repeat? >> No. I if if I'm correct me if I'm wrong in what I'm paraphrasing here. >> Like I said, I'm just kind of going off the cuff here. So, >> and kind of what I'm reading here is you're saying like, okay, we're in this emergency mode and we're putting together this plan and we're coming up with this because we know this is the crisis we have on the table right now. Are we doing this and not thinking about that long-term aspect, that fiveyear, 10 year strategic plan that really should be developed and should be put in place? Um, but we're not getting to that because we're so in the hyperfocused on the the crisis. Did I paraphrase that correctly? >> That is
182perfect. Thank you. >> So, it's essentially like >> Yeah. I mean, we are we right now we're trying to solve the issue because what becomes difficult is when you're in that operating deficit decisions moving forward. I mean, we have to make sure that whatever decisions that are impacting our programs, our curriculum, that we can sustain that. And right now, we don't know if we are able to because we don't know, there's nothing that's in place to correct that operating deficit. >> So, we're working with what we have at the moment, hoping the best for the future, and making plans from there. >> And I'll say this, when I was first on board in August, September, we talked about strategic planning. We said that's something that absolutely needs to be done that we need to start
183that process but quite honestly this has been what became the focus and rightfully the the focus at this point. >> Okay. Thank you very much >> Richard Patu43 Hayes again. Um and most respect for Superintendent Wager. My question is what is the board going to do differently to prevent it from happening again? So, right now, I know that there were previous uh policies that we're going to be evaluating to change to make sure we have mechanisms specific to our grants um in place so that the board can be able to see those. Um we're working with those uh right now um to change. We're also looking at making sure that moving forward that any budgetary moving next budget that all of that is broken down. So, making sure the board's going through that workshop to
184make sure we go through with our CFO line item by line item. We need to be able to see it. I know previously um and in most school districts they get that general overview of that budget and so being able to actually see line item by line that day. And and I will add to this too that one of my concerns that uh I noticed and I think this was a few board meetings ago when we were working with MASB and uh to learn that we don't have committee processes uh in place at this point because when I was here as a teacher and as an administrator building administrator we used to have finance committees that had various uh union presidents would sit on them various stakeholders in the community would sit on them and
185it gave it that more oversight to what was taking place. And quite honestly, those kind of things need to be reestablished and reut back in uh for this very reason. The more eyes you see on something, the more you're going to to see what happens. >> Thank you. >> Stephanie Pratt, 2443 Hayes. Um, two questions. Um, when and how are parents going to be notified about this proposal? Because if I did not work for the district, I would not know. and my child also goes to West. My child also goes to Taylor Parks. >> I am the president of the PTO at Taylor Parks that we just reformed and now the school is looking to close. I understand it's the oldest school, but I would not know as a parent. Are you even open to
186hearing from the parents before making a decision? >> So, I mean, that's something that the board can definitely discuss. I know uh we have the action after close session, so that's something we can discuss um back there. And then also looking ahead, if the vote was to go through tonight, that's when the every single sta uh every single staff member, every single community member, every single parent would be emailed. Our social media would have the video that >> Yeah, we have communication items ready. >> Is the vote to actually do it or is the vote just to present the proposal? I guess that's the part I'm also confused on. So the vote tonight would be to do it and that's because we're trying to look because next year we do hit that $4 million $4.8
187million operating deficit. >> And I'll say this from my years of you know when I was here as a teacher and as a building admin there were many times we always came late to the party on all these things and we were desperately trying to throw together uh closing a building in April um for the next school year and we just can't get ourselves into that boat. So, I understand that part, too. It's finding that fine line and that fine balance. >> I understand your concern. But on that note, I am going to echo my co-workers concern that if you're going to vote to do this proposal without giving more of the staff time to think of their questions, without letting parents address their concerns. I feel very uncomfortable with that and it does raise
188questions to me about the transparency issue that has already been raised that you addressed yourself in the video. >> Um, additionally, I I see all the numbers. I appreciate all the numbers. I am also going to ask you to consider I'm not 100% sure that you've considered the human aspect of this. Like I said, I understand Taylor Parks is one of the oldest elementary school buildings. It makes sense if one has to close that would be one of them. But I cannot overstate the relationships and the families that are in each of these buildings. There is going to be a cost and it is going to hurt even if it does become necessary. So a little bit more time and a little bit more explanation I think would be very helpful um just to help
189because I know it's not just the the teachers. my kids have a relationship with their lunch lady that they still go see her down the hallway. So, just please consider that the numbers don't always present the human aspect of what we're talking about in making these decisions. And I do appreciate that it's not an easy decision. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right, moving on. Hello, my name is Michelle Sudi and I'm a teacher at Johnson Early Childhood Center. And my question, well, statement and then a question. The childcare licensing process takes about 6 to9 months to complete. We can't open or serve children at Eureka Heights until that process is complete. So there's no way Eureka Heights will be licensed by fall or even winter of the 2425 school year. So what is the
190plan for all of the GSRP children in Taylor when our current licensed building is filled with Kenyan students and we're not allowed to open as a licensed child care center at Eureka Heights. So we have no home for these children. >> Um to answer that question, we're working with Lee on uh navigating that whole licensing process. So, and we're >> well the process I mean and Lee Lee said that today in our meeting too. She knows that we won't be able to be open in fall or winter. It's a six to nine month process. So, it's not a matter of navigating it. It's a matter of where will our home be when we can't open in the fall. >> It cut out a little bit. Can you just repeat that? >> Ah, okay. >> I'm
191wondering where our home will be when we can't open in the fall. Where will these children go to school? Um, again, working with Lee, we're going to be addressing that and making sure that the GSRP program does have a home next year. So, >> it'll have to be somewhere licensed, which currently is only Jensen in this district. >> Thank you. >> Hi, Jennifer Myers, 8004 View. Um, is is there a certain person in ad administration that does the licensing or is it somebody at Johnson that does it? >> Would be the state who has >> because I I do know that it could be less than six to nine months just from personal experience because I work in the state of Michigan. >> So >> yeah, I I think what you're saying is like and
192again correct me if I'm wrong, but if I'm paraphrasing here, you're saying that getting a license from the state could be less than that time period. But the concern is whether we have the the things correct that would allow them to get that going. So yes, >> you can still correct it. It's the information is online. >> So there is a way to speed it up, but you got to make sure you're on top of it and whoever's in charge of it respond to them immediately so you could get it done. >> Thank you. All right, moving forward to item number 13 on our agenda. Ajournment to close session. Miss Blockerman to close session policy 137.2. Can you hear me, Miss Bats? Can you hear me? >> I don't think so. >> Okay. Pursuant to
193Michigan's Open Meetings Act being public act 267 of 1976 and as amended, I move the board convene in close session pursuant to 8H material exempt from disclosure by state or federal statute. >> Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Myers. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Is that Mrs. Thomas? She felt >> Mr. Myers. >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas, >> yes. >> Mrs. Thomas, >> yes. >> Mrs. Shufelt, >> yes. >> Mr. Wright, >> yes. >> Miss Black is Yes. Mr. Heath, >> yes. >> Seven. Yes. We are going into close session at 902. We are returning from close session at 10:03 p.m. Action after close session. After consideration, the board is deciding to table the um action after close session until January 8th. Um, we recognize and want to acknowledge that we
194want to give our community members the time to process this information, be able to come back to us and be able to in the Q&A forum that will take place on the 8th, um, be able to ask our questions and our district will do the best uh, opportunity to answer those questions. Um, we want to make sure that people feel um, that they're able to digest that information and understand. So, is there a motion to table the action after close session? >> That's my >> There's a motion by Mr. Meyers. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Oh, it go. >> I think we January 10th. >> January 10th. >> Motion to table the action item until January 10th regularly scheduled board meeting. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Myers. Is there a
195second? >> Second by Mrs. Thomas. >> Mr. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Missel? >> Yes. >> Mr. Wright? Is he? Yes. Miss Block? >> Yes. >> Mr. Heath? >> Yes. >> Mr. Meyers? >> Yes. >> That carries 70. The action item of the Taylor School District utilization plan will be tabled until January 10th's regularly scheduled board meeting. Moving on to item number >> 15. Board member comments. Are there any board member comments? >> Yes. I just like to wish everyone a merry Christmas and happy new year, happy Quanza, whatever uh Hanukkah is over with. Um whatever you celebrate, have a happy holiday season. Um, next year will be a lot of different things for this district and um, we're gonna need everybody to get a good holiday under their belt. >>
196Merry Christmas everybody. >> I just want to say um, I know today was a very trying day for the Taylor School District. I know a lot of information was given to our staff members. U momentarily this district will uh continue to put information out to our parents. Um we want to make sure that um everybody in the district is aware of the plan that is being proposed uh for action on January 10th. Um we know that what we are learning today is hard. It's hard for the staff that have been here for a very long time that have gone through this time and time again and have seen failed leadership. And that is the one thing that we're thankful to have Mike here. Um I know he stepped in to this position as we were
197discovering this. Um and I just want to thank him. I want to take the time to thank him because um he believed in the Taylor School District and he still believes in the Taylor School District. That's why he's here. He's here because he knows he wants to help us. And so I just want him along with the rest of the cabinet that stepped up into these positions. um especially with learning all of what's happening now. Um there our leaders care. They care and they want to be here and they want to do the right thing. So I want to thank >> I will agree with Kyle. Um I know that this is a lot for all of our teachers, our staff members. Um it's going to be hard on our students. Um, I'm a parent
198of a student in the district as well and so even being in this position, it was still hard to take in when we all learned. Um, I know some people probably feel blindsided. Um, we had the same reactions as board members. Um, we're trying and we are putting the children and the employees of the district first. And I also think Mike um this is not easy for you to come into. I don't want to see our district fail. So thank you. You worked hard on this plan. I think it's a good plan for our district to thrive. I can't imagine probably the sleepless nights that not only you and Kyle have had um trying to put this plan in place. And um I hope I speak on all of our board members, but um we're
199here to support each other and we're trying to be as transparent with our community as we can and we hope that you guys are seeing that. >> Well said. Yeah, >> thanks. My computer's freaking >> Any other board member comments? >> My computer started freaking out here. >> Go blue. Go Lions. >> There you go. >> Moving on to item number 16. Ajournment. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Meyers. Is there support? >> Support by Mr. Thomas. Mrs. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Miss Shufelt. >> Yes. >> Mr. Wright is a yes. Miss Black. >> Yes. >> Mr. Heath? >> Yes. >> Mr. Meyer? >> Yes. Mr. Mr. Tom. >> Yes. >> That carries 70. The board of education regular board meeting for December 20th, 2023 will adjourn at 10:09 p.m. Have a great
200night.